I don't think there are many photos capturing the WRC that are as powerful as the one you see above you. It may appear as if it is merely a congratulatory embrace between two rally drivers, but it turns out it was the moment the balance of power turned from one supreme French Sebastien to the other. Loeb, the 9x record breaking World Champion; imperious, flawless, as cool as a cucumber. Ogier, the man who has just won the 2013 World Championship and his first, taking over from his compatriot's reign. A question I have often asked myself is who actually is the greatest: Loeb or Ogier? There are several factors that skew any analysis and conclusion, chiefly among which is the fact Ogier is still at the peak of his WRC career whilst Loeb has not competed full time for the past 3 seasons despite the odd appearance. Also, no matter what the numbers say, they don't always tell the full story. Colin McRae is regarded as one of the greatest ever, but only has 1 World Championship title. In Formula 1, Ayrton Senna is often cited as the best the sport has ever seen, but he won 4 less championships and 52 less races than Michael Schumacher. The matter is completely subjective, but I'm going to dive a little deeper and let you decide who you think is the greatest. The Case for LoebStatistically Sebastien Loeb is the greatest rally driver there has ever been, with that there is no arguing. 78 WRC victories, 9 World Championship titles taken in consecutive years, and an incredible level of consistency and feel for conditions that saw him at the top of the sport for so long. Plenty of drivers can drive incredibly quickly, but few can be so close to the limit without making mistakes like Sebastien Loeb. Loeb took the 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 titles despite battling against some of the sport's greatest champions'. In his time he has battled with and defeated Tommi Makinen, Carlos Sainz, Richard Burns, Colin McRae, Petter Solberg and chiefly Marcus Gronholm, whom with the possible exception of Mikko Hirvonen was Loeb's fiercest rival and closest challenger for the world title. The only full season Loeb did that didn't result in him being World Champion was 2003, where Petter Solberg took the spoils by just 1 point. However, Loeb was under strict instruction from Citroen to bring the car home for the manufacturer's championship. Had he been on a free reign would he be a 10 times champion? What also helps Loeb in the hall of fame is he did what Schumacher did in Formula 1. He raised the bar considerably leaving his rivals in his wake. He never had a specific weakness; quick on all surfaces and rarely making mistakes. Whether Ogier goes on to match or even better Loeb's achievements remains to be seen, but Loeb will always be the first one to dominate the sport in such a way, giving him a slight edge over Ogier as despite how impressive Ogier may turn out to be, we have ultimately seen it before. The Case for OgierSebastien Ogier, the pretender to Loeb's crown, is the current World Rally Champion, and looks set already to make it 4 in a row in 2016 after just 3 rallies. However, unlike Loeb, as you can see in the picture above, Ogier has tasted success with more than one team, proving he is not a one trick pony so to speak. Ogier rose from the JWRC in a Citroen C2 into a C4 WRC, taking his maiden win in 2010 for the Junior team before elevating into the main team to partner Loeb in a DS3 WRC in 2011. Ogier never won a title with Citroen, but he took 7 wins with the French marque, 5 in 2011 (as many as Loeb) and was definitely the strongest team mate Loeb ever had in his Citroen days. As great as Dani Sordo and Mikko Hirvonen are, neither consistently took the challenge right to him. Ogier, unlike Loeb, has never been in a final round World Drivers Championship shoot-out. This is because he has not needed the full calendar to get the job done. In 2013 Ogier won the title with 2 rallies to spare, 2014 he had 1 left and in 2015 he won it with 3 rallies left to go. The level of dominance Ogier has over his competition is mind blowing. Ever since Ogier and VW made their WRC debut in 2013, the Frenchman has won 27 out of the 42 rallies, which equates to a winning percentage of 64.2%, which is incredible! However, it is worth noting that Loeb similarly took titles with two or three rallies to go, for instance in 2010, and the calibre of his rivals was a lot higher in terms of their successes as Ogier is the only Champion in the current field. Although it could be said the only reason Ogier is facing no former Champions is down to the shear dominance of Sebastien Loeb. It's come to that point in the article where you may be expecting an answer from me. Truthfully, I think Loeb will always be that little bit greater to me just because he did it first, as unfortunate for Ogier as that is. And no matter what machine he gets into, he manages to be fast in it. I firmly believe he is not just the best rally driver, but the best driver we have ever seen.
As for Ogier, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he matches or even betters Loeb's statistics. He's head, shoulders, waist and knees above the opposition at the moment. Ogier will next be in WRC action in Rally Argentina, while Loeb is competing in World RX with Team Peugeot Hansen in 2016.
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Photo Credit: Hyundai Motorsport Round 3 of the 2016 FIA World Rally Championship saw the teams and the drivers head to the Americas, for Rally Guanajuato Mexico. Volkswagen's Sebastien Ogier was one of the favourites to win since he was yet to drop a point in 2016 and won the Mexican adventure in 2013, 14 and 15. However, on his 100th WRC start he was sweeping the gravel for the ensuing pack for the first two days, meaning he could only manage second place despite not putting a foot wrong. It was Ogier's team mate Jari-Matti Latvala who was there to steal top honours from the Frenchman, netting his 16th WRC win and first in Mexico. Latvala started a lowly 8th in the starting order due to having no points in the championship, and handsomely profited from this advantage, dominating both Friday and Saturday's action. In fact it was only until Sunday on the monster 80km Guanajuato stage that Ogier took his first stage win of the weekend. It was a great, mature drive from Latvala though, which will give him a confidence boost heading to Argentina and for the rest of the season. Mads Ostberg continued his fine start to the season despite never troubling the front runners with another podium finish in Mexico. The M-Sport pilot stayed out of trouble and netted third after Dani Sordo incurred a penalty after the event. Sordo finished the rally third, which at the time meant Hyundai had taken three podium finishes in three rallies with each driver Neuville, Paddon and Sordo grabbing one. However, a mix up in communications saw Sordo use 29 tyres throughout the weekend instead of 28 which is illegal, and it gave him a 2 minute penalty, demoting the Spaniard to fourth. Devastatingly with the penalty in place Sordo only finished 1.5 seconds behind Ostberg in third! Photo Credit: Volkswagen Motorsport Fifth place went to the ever impressive Hayden Paddon, who is fast establishing himself as one of the WRC's major players.The Kiwi struggled at times though with incorrect tyre choices and small collisions which damaged his suspension along the way.
DMACK's Ott Tanak finished a trouble free sixth, low key after the drama of last year where his Fiesta RS WRC ended up in a lake. This finish means the Estonian has finished in the points in every rally so far this season. Martin Prokop took seventh on his return to the WRC, while Lorenzo Bertelli netted his best WRC finish with eight place. Runaway WRC winner Teemu Suninen took ninth in his Skoda Fabia R5 with Valeriy Gorban in tenth with his MINI. However, missing from the top 10 were Hyundai's Thierry Neuville and Volkswagen's Andreas Mikkelsen. Neuville got the event off to a great start, winning the opening street stage in Guanajuato. However on Friday's first stage, El Chocolate, the Belgian slid wide on a fast right hander that tightened, collected a pole with the front left of his i20 and ruined his suspension. Restarting under Rally 2, he went off again on Saturday, clipping a bank and harshly plummeting off the road. He and Nicolas Gilsoul were taken to hospital for checks but were ok. Neuville needs to buck this trend going to Argentina, as he lies well behind his team mates in the championship table. Andreas Mikkelsen meanwhile seems to be enduring a sticky patch of form. An uncharacteristic ragged performance in Sweden after a strong performance in Monte-Carlo was surprising. And now in Mexico after complaining his car was handling "like a snake", he crashed out on Saturday after pushing hard to pass Sordo for third place. A solid trouble free run will be the aim in Argentina. Ogier now has a 35 point lead over Ostberg in the championship, with Latvala now on the page in sixth with 27 points. Rally Argentina will be contested between 22-24 April. Don't miss it! |
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January 2018
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