How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sebastien?
Rally GB underlines the Frenchman's dominance - here's how he does it
Over the weekend, Citroen's Sebastien Loeb won an eighth consecutive World Rally Championship drivers' title. Let's put the series' state of health and the tedium of a dominant competitor to one side for a moment so that we might give the Frenchman the credit he deserves for a remarkable achievement.
Loeb has the edge on his competition...
Has he overcome a sufficient calibre of rival during his career to warrant comparison with such greats? I humbly think so. Finn Marcus Gronholm was a standout driver of the fiercely competitive McRae/Burns/Makinen/Sainz era, winning the world championship twice. Although Gronholm came desperately close to beating Loeb in the title race on two occasions, he just didn't ever have the measure of the Frenchman.
Loeb himself admits that always having had the fastest car in the service park has been central to his success, but we must remember that he was instrumental in their development (particularly of the C4 and the current DS3). Citroen Racing's technical director Xavier Mestelan-Pinon explains his capabilities thus: "His job during testing is to understand what is and what is not important, and to explain to us what he can feel. He understands these things, which is what makes him such a good development driver."
So where others fall off...
Ultimately, though, Loeb's success is a direct product of his driving style and confidence. He's essentially the greatest ever tarmac specialist, but he's been able to apply his methods to all surfaces. We know that a corner on a racing circuit has an optimum braking point, turn-in point, line, power-on point and so on. The best Formula 1 drivers hit all of these points perfectly corner after corner, lap after lap.
...he keeps it pointed the right way
What inevitably follows is victory. That breeds huge confidence in his own abilities and methods, which means he's capable of resisting the temptation to become more aggressive in the heat of a battle. He instead channels his competitive spirit into driving perfectly, into better hitting the optimum points on every corner.
Loeb is unique in his ability to do this. When the other drivers in the service park want to go faster, they 'push harder'. They brake later, get on the power earlier, try to carry more speed around a corner. They start to miss turn in points or run wide onto loose gravel, shedding time. When they see that Loeb has still gone faster, they believe that the Frenchman must be pushing even harder than they are. Their only solution is to push harder still, which just sees them make even more mistakes. Loeb, meanwhile, continues to drive perfectly, never leaving his comfort zone.
The result? More flamboyant drivers...
Mikko Hirvonen is a fine case in point. The Ford driver came within a point and a faulty bonnet clip of beating Loeb to the 2009 drivers' title. Missing out by such a narrow margin destroyed his confidence. He has spent the following two years trying to work out why he can't get back on the pace, despite pushing harder and taking more risks than ever before.
Loeb isn't braver than Hirvonen or the others. He's just confident enough to drive perfectly.
like Hirvonen or Meeke struggle to keep up
It's going to take an accurate replication of these principles by a very talented driver if Loeb is to be beaten in the world championship. Of course, Citroen might one year build a duff car or Loeb could suffer a string of unfortunate incidents, but in performance and consistency terms, he remains in a league of his own. He mightn't be beaten before he retires, and with a two-year contract with Citroen in place, that might just take him to 10 titles.
And he's untouchable on Tarmac
Loeb has stated on several occasions that he hasn't little interest in driving older rally cars and (perhaps wrongly) I don't believe they would suit his style at all.
Loeb is certainly talented, of that there is no doubt, and he has seen off some major talent in his time, however if he was in the WRC in the mid-90's, with the car designs of that era, I believe it would be a very different story. As it stands he's not though and, although others have come close again this year, they have still yet to topple Loeb. 9 in a row?...
He is the man at moment, no doubt.
I know there is a BIG gap between say, the Focus RS and the Focus WRC, but at least Ford have continued to produced some sort of road going version of their rally cars. Citroen gave us the "styled by Loeb" range a couple of years ago and thats it.
McRae was quite vocal in expressing the conflict he had with the Citroen team and his dislike of the Xsara. It was a car that suited neither his nor (to a lesser extent perhaps) Sainz driving style but was perfect for the tidy driving of Loeb.
As I mentioned in my initial post in the thread I would love to see Loeb in a Group A car (or even pre-2000 World Rally Car) against the likes of Gronholm, Sainz or even a current driver such as Hirvonen.
Of all the other drivers in the WRC this year Ogier has struck me as the one who was most deserving of the title. Perhaps thats the answer to the initial question posed by this article:
Q: "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sebastien?"
A: With another Sebastian!
Some very valid points you raise with regards to the F1 comparison as well. Loeb certainly hasn't run away with the WRC title this year in the same fashion that Vettel has in F1 and, despite the fact the WRC isn't at the level it was 10 years ago, it (to me) is still head and shoulders above F1 in terms of competition and excitement. F1 has always been the FiA's baby though and thats the one that always receives the biggest push from them.
As you rightly say we have a full season from MINI next year, VW making a showing and a couple of other manufacturers with plans brewing (apparently).
Rallycross is the latest motorsport to get a foothold in the US, I hope it fares better.
Although the stated BHP level of the 2.0L World Rally Cars is far lower than the Group B monsters (restricted to 300 BHP), some of the 2.0L World Rally Cars developed silly amounts of torque (well in excess of 450 ft. lbs) which is more then some of the Group B cars managed.
Power (as the statement goes) is nothing without control, and the modern cars are not only developing massive levels of power, but successfully putting it down as well. Couple that with developments in suspension and brakes its not hard to see why the modern cars ends up being faster. Of course although the modern World Rally Car is quicker point-to-point I know which one is going to be more spectacular to watch...
I don't know how the current crop of 1.6T World Rally Cars compare. I have seen them associated with figures of "around" 300 BHP (like the 2.0L WRC machines) but I've no idea how what sort of torque levels the 1.6T engines are producing or how the performance of the smaller World Rally Cars compares to the previous generation of cars.
(Thats not to take anything away from Burns Championship.
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