RE: Loeb at Rally de Espana: Time For Coffee
Tuesday 30th October 2018
Loeb at Rally de Espana: Time For Coffee?
You'll know the result by now; here's a chance to see the great man at work
What else is there left to say about Sebastien Loeb? Can't be much. While he has competed in two other WRC events before last weekend's Spain spectacular - at Mexico in March, and Corsica in April - to win in Catalunya remains a staggering achievement. The C3 WRC hasn't won a single rally this season, the championship is tighter than it has ever been (with three drivers still able to win), and Loeb hasn't done this rally since his last championship victory back in 2012. Bear in mind that the three championship protagonists - Thierry Neuville, Sebastien Ogier and Ott Tanak - all finished the rally and all would have been battling for the most points possible and it becomes an even more incredible feat.
The news circulating following the weekend's heroics is that Loeb could well be plotting a WRC return, though for now it's time to properly appreciate just what Loeb and co-driver Daniel Elena did in that C3. This video highlights some of their best bits from over the weekend, appropriately enough beginning with a cut so aggressive it nearly pitches the car over - Loeb nothing if not always fully committed.
So yes, watch and enjoy as Loeb rolls back the years and yet again has a red Citroen perilously close to rocks, trees and various other dangerous objects at incredible speed. Let's hope it can continue for a little while longer still.
Discussion
The motorsport story of the weekend!!
He may have got a bit of fortune with Tanak & Latvala suffering punctures during the event, but his tyre choice on Sunday morning was genius - and a well deserved winner of Rallye Catalunya.
And only a handful of comments - bizarre. If it's not F1 people/ media don't seem interested.
He may have got a bit of fortune with Tanak & Latvala suffering punctures during the event, but his tyre choice on Sunday morning was genius - and a well deserved winner of Rallye Catalunya.
And only a handful of comments - bizarre. If it's not F1 people/ media don't seem interested.
Well, I'm not sure about embarrassement. It might look that way from the simple summary of results and simplified report above.
But as I follow WRC events more closely, I can assure there was more going on than just simple "came, outpaced everyone and went home".
First half of the event Tanak was showing pace in his own league as many times before, consistently building up lead.
But eventually cocked up with tyre damage.
Loeb was in a close fight with the rest of top guys.
The deciding factor was Loeb's tyre gamble at the penultimate service break, opting for hard slick compound for still partially wet tarmac.
That gave them the edge on drying surface and for SS15 an 16 with 30 km in overall Loeb/Elena was the only crew on correct tyres for the job.
But it would have been disaster in case of more rain.
Others played it safe, with championship points in mind, and went with soft slicks.
Don't get me wrong - what these racing "pensioners" Loeb and Elena did this weekend was something amazing.
Being right on the pace without doing the full season for years shouldn't be possible for anyone.
But the margins were really small and they needed to fight really hard and utilize all of their experience to get to the top.
You can find complete overview of times stage by stage here if you wish so:
https://www.ewrc-results.com/results/44265-rallyra...
Funnily enough this result server created by volunteers and enthusiasts is used also by factory teams, as it is much more convinient than official wrc.com timing :-)
Anyway, picture of the weekend is surely this one
But as I follow WRC events more closely, I can assure there was more going on than just simple "came, outpaced everyone and went home".
First half of the event Tanak was showing pace in his own league as many times before, consistently building up lead.
But eventually cocked up with tyre damage.
Loeb was in a close fight with the rest of top guys.
The deciding factor was Loeb's tyre gamble at the penultimate service break, opting for hard slick compound for still partially wet tarmac.
That gave them the edge on drying surface and for SS15 an 16 with 30 km in overall Loeb/Elena was the only crew on correct tyres for the job.
But it would have been disaster in case of more rain.
Others played it safe, with championship points in mind, and went with soft slicks.
Don't get me wrong - what these racing "pensioners" Loeb and Elena did this weekend was something amazing.
Being right on the pace without doing the full season for years shouldn't be possible for anyone.
But the margins were really small and they needed to fight really hard and utilize all of their experience to get to the top.
You can find complete overview of times stage by stage here if you wish so:
https://www.ewrc-results.com/results/44265-rallyra...
Funnily enough this result server created by volunteers and enthusiasts is used also by factory teams, as it is much more convinient than official wrc.com timing :-)
Anyway, picture of the weekend is surely this one
Regardless of getting a little luck, this is a guy that hasn't been regularly driving these cars, and he was driving (comfortably) the weakest car. How close it was is pretty irrelevant; he had no business fighting at the front. He was hardly going to annihilate everyone given the inferior machinery at his disposal.
As for "lucky" choices on the tyres, that was very much a last-minute decision by Loeb himself. Most likely a decision made based on a huge amount of experience.
As for "lucky" choices on the tyres, that was very much a last-minute decision by Loeb himself. Most likely a decision made based on a huge amount of experience.
spikyone said:
he was driving (comfortably) the weakest car. How close it was is pretty irrelevant; he had no business fighting at the front. He was hardly going to annihilate everyone given the inferior machinery at his disposal.
That is debatable. Surely Ogier is no fool and wouldn't sign a contract with Citroen if the car was all that bad. Yes, it was generally believed to be peaky on the limit, with narrow operational window good enough for winning stages, but not whole events. It was Loeb himself helping to sort this out. It won the rally before with Meeke behind the wheel. But he was the only really fast guy on regular lineup. It was the same with DS3 - good enough for 2 titles with Loeb, looked average at best afterwards.jsf said:
It means what it says.
WRC is a poorly followed sport compared to its previous periods for a reason.
That was some achievement last weekend without doubt but I do share your views . Watching him come through ranks , latterly in the Saxo you could see their was something special , but it became tedious for the fans very quickly . He rarely made mistakes , rarely had DNFs , almost too perfect and that's why the boredom set in .WRC is a poorly followed sport compared to its previous periods for a reason.
The current generation of cars are certailnly more exciting , and I think the WRC is coming out of the doldrums , should Loeb make a full time return it won't be just a matter of rinse and repeat for him .Further wins will be harder and more infrequent , I do doff my cap to the bloke , he can drive
fttm said:
That was some achievement last weekend without doubt but I do share your views . Watching him come through ranks , latterly in the Saxo you could see their was something special , but it became tedious for the fans very quickly . He rarely made mistakes , rarely had DNFs , almost too perfect and that's why the boredom set in .
The current generation of cars are certailnly more exciting , and I think the WRC is coming out of the doldrums , should Loeb make a full time return it won't be just a matter of rinse and repeat for him .Further wins will be harder and more infrequent , I do doff my cap to the bloke , he can drive
My comment wasn't about the driver.The current generation of cars are certailnly more exciting , and I think the WRC is coming out of the doldrums , should Loeb make a full time return it won't be just a matter of rinse and repeat for him .Further wins will be harder and more infrequent , I do doff my cap to the bloke , he can drive
The sport fundamentally changed post Group A in particular, and with it the interest and spectators disappeared, in the UK it was a deliberate policy to reduce spectator numbers and restrict their access.
I watched the sport go from a high speed endurance event to a sprint format to follow the TV money that never came, it ruined the DNA of the sport.
jsf said:
My comment wasn't about the driver.
The sport fundamentally changed post Group A in particular, and with it the interest and spectators disappeared, in the UK it was a deliberate policy to reduce spectator numbers and restrict their access.
I watched the sport go from a high speed endurance event to a sprint format to follow the TV money that never came, it ruined the DNA of the sport.
YEah i pretty much stopped watching post group a.. The sport fundamentally changed post Group A in particular, and with it the interest and spectators disappeared, in the UK it was a deliberate policy to reduce spectator numbers and restrict their access.
I watched the sport go from a high speed endurance event to a sprint format to follow the TV money that never came, it ruined the DNA of the sport.
Why did the homoglation rules change / cease - loved the road going rally cars?
PorkRind said:
Why did the homoglation rules change / cease - loved the road going rally cars?
IIRC it was at least partly due to pressure from the European manufacturers who didn't have any suitable production cars to be competitive with the likes of Subaru and Mitsubishi.As I understand it the rule changes ended up making Subaru in particular uncompetitive because they allowed moving the engine from its production position, letting the transverse engine cars make huge improvements in weight distribution and centre of mass which couldn't be done effectively with the longitudinal boxer layout. Eventually they got sick of that and quit WRC, content to dominate production-based national championships instead.
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