" If Sebastien Ogier, your Citroen team mate and the up and coming star of the WRC begins to beat you regularly, would the make you stop?
Yes, I think so, I would say it's not worth taking unnecessary risks to chase him. But it's not him who will put an end to my career, It's my decision to make and it will come at the end of the 2011 season"
Nothing left to prove it's not a surprise Sebastien Loeb, Six time WRC champion and current standings leader would all but announce his retirement in an interview to Paris Match.
Other Highlights: He used to drive an AMX-30 tank in the army and in 1998 used to earn minimum wage pulling electrical cables.
Loeb has said "Rally is instinctive, Formula 1 is hard work"
You can read the interview (in french) HERE
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"Rally is instinctive, Formula 1 is hard work"
ReplyDeleteThere! That's the handle Ive been looking for.
For the longest time I've been puzzling over why rally drivers don't translate to other forms of racing.
Clearly, a guy like Loeb has bags of talent, especially on tarmac rallies. But you put him in a Le Mans car, and he's close, but not on the pace.
And other than Vic Elford, I can't think of many (any?) rally guys that ended up doing well on tracks. Okay, you could maybe say that Rick Mears was a rally guy (did off-road racing), but other than those two?
But Loeb is good, very very good. No two ways about that.
Very cool little interview, thanks for the link.
ReplyDeleteHe explains a bit more on the 'Rally is instinctive' part saying that in Rallye a lot relies on talent and that he's lucky to have a lot of it.
I also liked his ritual in the morning before the race: a backward summersault in the hallway of the hotel (to make sure the body is awake he says) and 3 strong coffees! :)