Saturday afternoon’s loop of this year’s Rallye
Monte-Carlo had just gotten underway and fans on the repeat run of
Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes / La Bâtie-Neuve were anticipating the arrival of
Takamoto Katsuta, who was first on the road.
What they were not anticipating was a
helicopter landing in a field on the opposite side of the road and, even less
so, to see eight-time Monte winner and nine-time WRC champion Sébastien Loeb
climb down from the cockpit and make his way to the embankment to join them.
Had it not been for his entrance, Loeb could have been mistaken for any other
rally fan.
Just two years earlier, Loeb was being crowned
the oldest-ever winner of a WRC rally at age 47 in what will go down in history
as one of the greatest-ever Rallye Monte-Carlos. On this occasion, however,
Loeb was on a tight schedule and was already running late for another race he
was competing in that evening – the Trophée Andros. But he could not resist the
pull of the WRC. Even if he couldn’t be behind the wheel, even if it were only
for 20 minutes, he had to be part of it.
"It's simply the closest thing to me.
Rallying is my nature,” reflects Loeb. “I didn't grow up in karts and was
already 23 when I first sat in a competition car. I'm obviously better at
improvising than repeating.
“On the circuit, you drive around the same
corner again and again. I have to work a lot harder and concentrate a lot more
to get the last bit of precision out of [the car].
“In rally driving, you work with the pace
notes, the settings on the car and so on. But there's hardly any repetition
when you're actually driving, it's simply less system and much more
feeling."
It comes as no surprise, then, that his
greatest results away from the WRC have also been achieved in off-road racing.
Just a week prior to making his fleeting
visit to this year’s WRC season opener, Loeb was standing on the third step of
the podium at the Dakar Rally. But for a man used to winning, third isn’t good
enough. He has already done that on one other occasion. There were also two
second places, but Dakar remains unfinished business.
"Even though I'm no longer a youngster,
I don't feel old. On the contrary: after eight starts with two third and two
second places in the Dakar Rally, I still want to win."
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