Bengaluru, January 3: Sebastien Loeb has virtually won everything in motorsports except for the Dakar Rally.

As the 40th edition of the most gruelling off road races is set to begin on January 6 (Saturday), the nine-time world rally champion is in a spot of bother.

With his team Peugot deciding to pull out of Dakar after this year's rally, Loeb realises it's now or never for him.

#Dakar2018 this is dakar, man! @SebastienLoeb #Peugeot pic.twitter.com/7uBElUP1Ig

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"For me, it's a little bit of a case of now or never if I want to win the Dakar," said Loeb, who will once again have Daniel Elena as his co-driver.

The duo almost pulled it off last year before being upstaged by Puegot team-mate and Dakar veteran Stephane Peterhansel, who had a final winning margin of just 5min and 13sec.

With the navigation needs being quite demanding, Loeb feels having someone of the calibre of his Monegasque co-driver alongside him will only be to his advantage as he eyes his maiden Dakar.

"Last year, we saw that we had the capability of winning it. Daniel did a good job when it came to the navigation. That's a source of motivation. We know that we can do it and I'm heading to South America with my sights set on victory, that's for sure."

Loeb knows even a small mistake can have drastic consequences in the Dakar as it happened in the 2016 edition where he crashed out after leading. With sand dunes forming a large part of the route, on which he acknowledges he has very limited experience, he says that anything can happen.

"But there are all sorts of things that come into play on the Dakar," said Loeb.

"It's very long and you can quickly lose everything with just a small mistake, especially now that the sand dunes form such a big part of the route again. That's positive for the sport, as it's what people imagine that rally raids are all about," added Loeb, who is set to compete in the FIA World Rally Cross Championship as well this year.

The 2018 Dakar Rally roars into life with teams taking on 14 stages and nearly 9,000km of hostile terrain passing across three South American countries -- Peru, Bolivia and Argentina.