Almost without exception, arrogance is a trait you will not find in elite sportsmen. Their abilities may be the envy of the world and their achievements the stuff of legend, but the protagonists themselves are rarely ones to blow their own trumpet. France’s rallying prodigy Sebastien Loeb is no different. He has been world champion three times and won more rallies than anyone else in the history of the sport, but despite what the record books might say, he doesn’t necessarily consider himself to be the best there’s ever been: “You cannot compare what I am doing now to what Carlos [Sainz] or Colin [McRae] or other drivers have done, that was another time,” he says. “At the moment I have a good team and everything is going well with the car. It’s not just the driver, it’s question of a lot of things.”
As a child growing up in the Alsace region of France, Loeb’s main competitive activity was gymnastics. He won five gold medals in the French championships, but rapidly lost interest in the sport as he entered his teens and discovered the joy of motorbikes and later, cars. The sense of balance, precision and control required on the beams would not go to waste, however, as he took his first steps in the world of motorsport. A late starter in rallying at the age of 22, Loeb would not be where he is today without the help of Dominique Heintz and Rémi Mammosser, two motorsport enthusiasts who spotted his talent when he finished first out of thousands of competitors in a nationwide ‘Rally Jeunes’ competition run by Peugeot. They backed Loeb in a regional championship, driving a Peugeot 106 for their ‘Ambition Sport Auto’ team. Working a series of low-paying manual jobs to support his expensive new-found hobby, any thoughts of ever becoming World Champion were far from the young Sebastian’s mind at this stage: “You cannot think like this,” he says with a laugh, “at this time, I was driving because I enjoyed it. To be World Champion one day seemed very far away.”
The next step in Loeb’s career was a stab at the French national series in a Citroen Saxo kit car. His performances behind the wheel of this machine garnered the attention of Citroen’s top brass, who were looking for a promising young driver to spearhead their planned assault on the World Rally Championship in 2002. Loeb undertook a limited programme in the Xsara WRC that year, immediately making a name for himself with his maiden victory on the treacherous asphalt of Germany. The following season, Loeb took the fight to Subaru’s Petter Solberg, missing out on the title by a single point. Although peerless on tarmac, he was still not completely at home on gravel and snow, but rapidly rectified this in 2004, when he became the first non-Scandinavian to win the snowy Swedish rally and also took victories on fast gravel events such as Rally Australia. His consistency that season brought him his first world championship title, which he followed up with a record-breaking season in 2005 and a third triumph in 2006, earning him the nickname of Le Patron, or ‘The Boss.’
2007 has seen the resurgent former world champion Marcus Gronholm push Loeb harder than before in his Ford Focus. The extra pressure has also forced some mistakes from the previously unflappable Frenchman, with offs in Norway and Sardinia. How long does it take him to regain confidence after a crash? “One or two stages,” he says without hesitation. “In Greece, for example, on the first stage Marcus was a lot faster than me because I was a still thinking a bit about what had happened on the last stage in Italy.” Another mistake in Japan was cancelled out by the fact that Gronholm retired there, too, meaning the situation was unchanged heading in to Rally Ireland. Both Gronholm and Loeb had entered Irish Tarmac Championship rallies earlier in the year to get a feel for the Irish roads, which are markedly different from those found on other tarmac rallies, where billiard-table smoothness is the order of the day in places like Corsica and Catalunya. “The roads here are very fast and really different,” remarks Loeb. “They’re bumpy, yes, but not only that. Compared to other rallies, it’s really fast and narrow. It’s not just the tarmac but the style of roads that’s very different.”
Gronholm was still in the lead the title race until he crashed out on the Lough Gill stage on the first day of the Irish event, with Loeb’s subsequent victory giving him a six-point championship lead heading into the final event of the season in Wales. Gronholm has already announced that he will retire at the end of this year, and Loeb admits he will miss competing against the lanky Fin. “I will miss him,” he says “especially now that there are not a lot of big names in the championship. For sure he was the strongest opponent I ever faced.” Looking forward to 2008, he believes 2003 champion Petter Solberg can still pose a threat: “I think Petter is a good driver, but he is not feeling comfortable in his team at the moment. I don’t know if he’s staying with Subaru or not next year, but if he gets the feeling back he will be very fast.”
Not content with ruling the rally stages, Loeb has also made a foray into circuit racing, in the shape of the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans sportscar race in France. He entered the race in 2005 and 2006 with the Pescarolo team, finishing on the podium in ’06, but stayed away this year. “It was complicated, as I broke my arm at the end of last season and I didn’t know if it would be completely ready or not at the time I had to make the decision,” he explains. “Also this year we knew there was no chance on paper to win against Audi.” One senses however that Loeb considers the Circuit de la Sarthe to be unfinished business. “For the future, anything is possible,” he says with a grin. But such adventures may have to wait until his WRC career is over. When that will be is anyone’s guess at this point. “I don’t know when I’m going to retire,” admits Loeb. “I am doing what I like at the moment, so I will continue. They day I’m fed up of it I’ll stop.” Only then will his competitors be able to at last breathe a sigh of relief.
This interview was originally published in Motoring Life magazine.
