Rallycross racer and occasional sim racer Fabien Pailler is taking an important occasion for Pailler Competition to announce a full change in his schedule, setting his sights for the FIA European Rallycross Championship with a fresh start and some unfinished business from the recent past.
After focusing his attention in Rallycross France in recent years, Fabien is coming back for a full time Euro RX, but there’s a twist in this new adventure. Rallycross fans gor used to see Pailler Competition using the Peugeot 208 WRX due to the long time that Fabien and Jonathan Pailler accelerated two examples of the model, but for 2026, Fabien will drive a Renault Megane R.S. RX, well known for being Prodrive’s solution for GCK when Guerlain Chicherit and his team were in the World RX, and after a subpar campaign with Monster Energy RX Cartel, the active examples of the car have been making waved at national level in the hands of independent competitors.
Pailler Competition as an organization has 50 years of existence, with 40 of those years dedicated to rallycross, which is why Fabien is taking the opportunity to return to Euro RX, although we can consider other things in this program. Team owner and father Jean-Luc Pailler is a Division 2 champion himself, being a fierce rival of legends like Tommy Kristoffersson, Kenneth Hansen and Per Eklund, with most of them being team owners today. Since then, France only lifted an Euro RX title with Eddy Benezet, while in other attempts over the years there was always someone to spoil the French party, like Kenneth Hansen, Jussi Pinomäki, Timur Timerzyanov, Tommy Rustad, Reinis Nitiss, and more recently, Andreas Bakkerud.
It is worth mention that Bakkerud was the first to confirm a program, and like Fabien, he will be in a very different position compared to the 2021 season where the Norwegian narrowly sealed the title after being a last minute call for ESMotorsport, with Fabien being the favorite for that season but having to settle for second amid an inspired Bakkerud with a relatively new Skoda Fabia RX Evo.
Both Bakkerud and Pailler are technically going with in-house teams in aging machinery, but the Megane R.S. RX is newer than the Ford Fiesta ST RX, and once it got past the suspension problems it had in World RX, the Megane became a reliable car with potential to unlock, as shown by Jankó Wieszt and Andor Trépak in recent seasons. Prodrive has also been helping Pailler Competition to get acquainted with the car, so the surprises will be kept to a minimum.
Along with Pailler and Bakkerud, Tamás Kárai and René Münnich are the other entrants from that 2021 season that will take part in the 2026 season, with the next generation of rallycross racers being the majority in the list, which apparently should have been closed when the registration period ended on 13 March, so it’s just question of time for a full entry list.
The 2026 Euro RX season starts at 10 May, with the Bikernieku Trase at Riga being the host venue.
IMAGE: Pailler Competition
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