It gives clues about the personality of this remarkable eight-time World Rally Champion. Scratch, an Alsatian, is a good host, too. He takes us for a walk near his home, a couple of hundred metres up into the Swiss foothills of the Jura mountains. “You see over there? That’s Mont Blanc,” says the man usually reckoned to be the sports darling of France, alongside Sébastien Chabal and Yannick Noah. Today, there are clouds either side of Lake Geneva, but they can’t prevent the 4,807m of Europe’s highest peak from soaring over the horizon.
Loeb is affable and all smiles when we meet in the heart of Switzerland’s Vaud canton, just a couple of weeks after his latest world rally title conquest. No doubt he’s relishing this downtime at the hillside home he shares with his wife Séverine and daughter Valentine, during the brief off-season lull in the sport he continues to dominate so consummately. He suggests a coffee. Then another. And soon he’s away, talking informally and with no holds barred.
The Red Bulletin: Sébastien, can you remember all 67 of your WRC wins?
Sébastien Loeb: [Surprised] No. That’s terrible!
OK, well where have you had the most wins then?
[Without hesitation] Germany. [He’s won there eight times.]
The Monte Carlo Rally, which has been off the WRC calendar since 2008, gets the 2012 season under way in a few days’ time [January 17-22].
Almost like being at home...?
It’s really a rally for my co-driver, Daniel [Elena]. That’s where he’s from. It’s a shame the Monte was dropped for a couple of years. There was a desire from the sport’s organisers for a new schedule, which would keep some races but not others. They must have forgotten you need to keep a solid base, because the ‘Monte Carlo’ was removed at the same time as the Tour de Corse. But it’s good that it’s coming back. It’s run in France, so it’s special for us.
How many times have you won it?
I don’t remember...
Five, actually. It also has the famous Col de Turini stage.
Daniel used to be a spectator on the Monte Carlo course when he was younger. I didn’t even know what it was back then.
Did you ever go to rallies when you were a kid?
I once went to the Vosges Rally, I think. My father took me there. Maybe when I was about 10. After that, I didn’t go to another one until I was competing.
Which drivers impressed you back in those days?
The problem is, I didn’t even know what rallying was back then! So I was never a fan of anyone’s. It wasn’t till I was almost 18 that I started watching races on TV with my mates. We used to say: ‘It’s amazing what those guys can do with their cars’. But no more than that.
What was your first job?
I was a PE teacher, like my dad. He was a gym trainer at a club and then a Departmental Technical Advisor before going to work in a school. I could see myself following in his footsteps. I wasn’t really into studying. And I knew that I might like it.
And what was your dream job?
To be a fighter pilot! But I screwed up. I was told: ‘You have to do further maths and special maths’. But some people managed to get there without doing all that. I got on board a Rafale [jet fighter] one day and I spoke to the pilot about it. He told me how he’d got to where he was, and it was nothing like what I’d been told. Sure, his studies were slightly technical, but nothing out of the ordinary. And of course, you’d be doing something that interests you.
So what was your precocious first contact with cars?
It started with my neighbour. He used to push me around the back garden in my car. I didn’t touch the pedals. I used to go backwards and forwards... My father used to take out me out driving in the fields. Sometimes I used to nick the car and take it for a spin. I had to be the fastest in moped races too.
What type of school kid were you?
I didn’t get my baccalaureate as I left school early. I got 20/20 in maths in the National Diploma without ever working. That was fine by me, getting good marks without doing anything. Later on I had to work a bit. I wanted a sports car and my parents insisted I work during the holidays. My first job was in a factory, making polyurethane supports for washbasins and baths. Eventually, I’d earned a bit of cash and I said to myself: ‘If I carry on working, I’m going to buy myself the car’. I carried on and never went back to school. But pretty soon I’d had enough of that kind of job, so I did a year of electrical engineering vocational studies. I finished that, then went from one job to the next until I started rally- driving. For the first two years, I was still doing both.
So, tell us, what was that hankered- after first car?
A Renault Super 5 GT Turbo.
Maybe you were destined to be a fast driver. Your parents are a maths and a PE teacher, which would explain why you have such quick analytical and reactive skills...
That’s a good point – and I’ve never actually considered that. My dad, yes, he was the French university gymnastics champion. I used to spend time in gyms from an early age, and I would accompany him when he was a trainer, too. It’s so important to be in control of your body, to have balance. And in order to drive fast, your car and body have to become one. It’s all got to be natural. Like when you’re walking. I don’t think about driving. Ever. You’ve got to be relaxed in the car.
Sorry? You don’t think?
It’s true. I don’t think. It all comes naturally. I don’t have the time for it to be otherwise. For example, once, on a special stage, I wanted to adjust my brake balance to add a bit to the rear. I know very well that you turn the knob to the right to shift the brakes to the rear. But with all the notes, concentrating on the driving, listening to your co-driver, remembering the route, adjusting your entry speed, adjusting your speed according to grip and the line you’re going to take, there are lots of calculations to make in a hurry. It’s got to come naturally. I haven’t got time to think of anything else.
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