With the helicopter blades slowing above us, Guy Fréquelin took off his headset, ran a hand through his hair and adjusted his Ray-Bans.
“D’accord?”
Absolutely.
“Then let’s go and see.”
It’s Germany, two decades and a couple of months ago. I’d joined Citroën’s team principal for an airborne ride out to the Bosenberg stage to watch his Xsara WRCs in action. There was nothing unusual in this. Back in the day, the former World Rally Championship runner-up would regularly be heli-bound in the direction of the stages. As a former driver, he liked to watch first-hand how his charges were… charging.
Nobody was charging harder than Sébastien Loeb. The then 30-year-old was still bristling from missing out on the previous year’s world championship – by a single point to Petter Solberg.
Loeb lost out to Solberg in 2003, but returned the favor in 2004
On the eve of the 2004 campaign, Loeb still found it hard to hide his frustration.
“Looking back,” he said, “everywhere I look I can find this point I needed.”
Winning four from the first six rallies he finished was a breathtaking way to bounce back from that disappointment. By the time his boss landed the helicopter alongside the Bosenberg stage at top of a Rally Deutschland Saturday, he was already 22 points ahead in the title race. And almost 30 seconds up in the event.
Seeing the #3 Xsara slicing its way through a series of damp-but-drying corners, I kept an eye on Fréquelin as much as the thundering Citroën. The pride felt in the man and machine which went before us couldn’t have been more obvious.
“Economic,” smiled Fréquelin. “You see? Sébastien is economic with everything. He uses less road, less tire… but he takes more speed.”
Looking into the future, he wouldn’t be drawn on when (not if) Loeb would be world champion. But the wry smile confirmed it would be sooner rather than later.
That 2004 season offered a significant changing of the guard. Solberg’s success the previous year had come on a farewell event for Tommi Mäkinen and Colin McRae while Loeb’s team-mate Carlos Sainz would bring his full-time WRC to a close just 12 months later.
Loeb's driving style was revolutionary, and helped him become the yardstick that he has today
Nobody could predict the damage Loeb would do to the history books in the coming decade; any consideration of him not being beaten across a season-long campaign for nine years would have been fanciful and far-fetched in the extreme.
But there was something with Loeb. Just something.
His natural talent was beyond question, but it was also the speed with which he learned his craft – the craft of winning world rallies. Look back at 2004 and you won’t find many of his wins coming with a small margin; he simply didn’t make mistakes, he just dominated events.
It’s worth remembering, Fréquelin’s Citroën team was a very well oiled machine by then. The Xsara WRC was the oldest World Rally Car in the field in 2004, but any car coming from the pen of Jean-Claude Vaucard was going to stand the test of time. And this one certainly did.
The Xsara had exceptional speed, but ultimate reliability as well – it retired just nine times in its first 100 starts. The team brought intense detail to every aspect of the game, the task of running a weather crew was drilled like a military operation. But it all came together under Fréquelin. The esprit de corps he created was like no other team of that generation.
Loeb fed from that. And flourished in it.
Former gymnast Loeb celebrated in style on the podium with a backflip in front of the adoring crowd
Seeing the pair of them embrace at the end of the Tour de Corse was a moment of enormous emotion. This father-and-son relationship had realized the ultimate prize. Frèquelin had achieved his dream and gone one better than he’d managed as a driver himself in 1981.
The pride they shared was incredible, the feeling that this was just the start of the journey palpable. Not the one for big, expansive gestures, Loeb’s decision to pull off a perfect somersault on the finish ramp in Ajaccio demonstrated what this moment meant to him.
And that moment was 20 years ago today.
