Somewhere, over there, in a parallel universe, Sébastien Loeb isn’t just a nine-time World Rally champion.
Because had his 2009 WRC season not turned upside down, or had the FIA not denied him a super license, the greatest rally driver of all time would have also been a Formula 1 driver.
And probably a very good one at that.
In a career that’s taken Loeb far beyond rally to rally-raid, rallycross, touring cars and the 24 Hours of Le Mans – he’s conquered it all. But F1 will always be the agonizing itch he tried to scratch but ultimately never could.
Fifteen years ago this year, the dream died almost as soon as it was born. This is the story of Loeb’s brief dalliance with Formula 1, including his own recollections from today.
The first test with Renault
Loeb had far more pressing matters to concern himself with than a Formula 1 test in late 2007.
Heading into the penultimate round of the season in Ireland, the then triple world champion trailed Ford’s Marcus Grönholm by four points in a season that was going down to the wire.
But just days before Loeb launched his Citroën C4 WRC into the Irish lanes, it was announced that ‘Le Maestro’ would get the chance to drive a Renault Formula 1 car through Citroën’s sponsor Total, which was part of the same group as Elf that partnered the Renault F1 team.
Loeb did have circuit racing pedigree at this stage, having entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice with Pescarolo Sport – finishing a standout second overall in 2006. But he was quick to stress that there was nothing to be read into the test that was taking part in purely for “pleasure”.
Loeb had already raced with distinction, most notably at Le Mans
The then 33-year-old dealt with his WRC campaign, winning in Ireland as Grönholm meaning third in Wales – one spot behind the Finn – was enough to seal the championship. An F1 car beckoned.
The test was held at Paul Ricard in France that December, where Loeb got to drive the R27 – the machine Renault had used throughout the 2007 season. Heikki Kovalainen (at this stage still a Renault driver but about to sign for McLaren in a seat swap with Fernando Alonso) also took the wheel of Loeb’s rally car: the C4 WRC.
Loeb was said to be 1.5s off Kovalainen’s pace and left the track keen to try an F1 car again.
He wouldn’t have to wait too long.
An official test with Red Bull
Such is the intensity of the WRC calendar, just one month after that F1 test, Loeb was kickstarting his latest title defense at the Monte Carlo Rally.
With Grönholm retiring and Mikko Hirvonen assuming his spot as Ford’s de facto team leader, Loeb wasn’t expected to have an easy ride in 2008 but an easier one.
What followed was an epic campaign, even for Loeb’s standards, that featured 11 wins – including the one jewel previously missing from his crown, Rally Finland – and just two failures to make the podium.
But behind the scenes, forces were at work. Red Bull had become a major sponsor of the Citroën World Rally Team in 2008, and after clinching the title a round early with third place in Japan, it was announced that Loeb would be getting back in the cockpit of a Formula 1 car – only this time the stakes had been raised.
Loeb looked the part as he joined official F1 testing in Barcelona
Forget the private test. Loeb was to take part in the official post-season test in Barcelona with Red Bull.
Loeb tells DirtFish: “It was nearly every year when I was world champion – because it was every year! – that Red Bull always wanted to make a little present for me. One year it was the tour with an acrobatic helicopter and this year, it was a test with the Formula 1 [car], because they knew that I liked Formula 1 and followed it.
“So they offered me the chance to test the car in an official test in Barcelona. It just came up like this and it was an incredible opportunity to be able to test a car like this.”
An initiation test was organized at Silverstone before Loeb hit the track with other drivers in Spain.
But for something that was being played off as casual, rather than a career switch, it was all getting rather serious. However, to this day Loeb denies he was ever genuinely contemplating giving up the stages for the circuits – at this point at least.
It’s not every day that you get a chance to drive a Formula 1 car so I tried to do it quite seriously.Sébastien Loeb tells DirtFish about his debut test
“Honestly, at this moment, I didn’t see it as an opportunity for the future,” he assures DirtFish, “but it’s not every day that you get a chance to drive a Formula 1 car so I tried to do it quite seriously.
“There’s not much you can do in preparation for something like this, but I went on the track once in a Peugeot 908 from Le Mans before, to get a bit of experience of the track. And then when I got there, I took it seriously and, in the end, the results were not too bad.”
Indeed they weren’t.
Testing times are always difficult to read, but on just his third outing in an F1 car Loeb set the eighth quickest time (of 17) and completed 82 tours of the circuit without incident.
There was genuine excitement that Loeb was actually good enough to race in F1, but was it too late?
Chance to race collapses
Red Bull clearly didn’t think so. After making headlines declaring he was fast enough for F1, it was clearly interested in exploring what might be possible with Loeb.
That desire only heightened when Sébastien Bourdais underperformed in Red Bull’s junior team, Toro Rosso, across the first half of the 2009 season.
Rumors began to swirl that Loeb, in the middle of a WRC campaign, could be in the running to take his countryman’s F1 seat; rumors that Loeb engulfed with comments made to the press.
In the middle of 2009, Loeb received a call about jumping into an F1 race seat
“Who knows,” he told French newspaper L’Equipe. “As long as the Formula 1 and rallying calendars don’t overlap, anything is possible. If there is a place at Toro Rosso I am available.”
Loeb’s boss at Citroën, Oliver Quesnel, was unsurprisingly less than enthused by those comments: “Sébastien has expressed a desire to be in F1, and it does not surprise me as it is a dream come true for him,” Quesnel said.
“However, we must not dream.”
But Loeb really was under consideration from as early as April – three months before Bourdais was ultimately replaced.
He tells DirtFish today: “After this test [in 2008], we arrived in another situation. It’s one day I still remember well as we were flying back from the Argentina Rally. I had the motorsport boss from Red Bull that called me, and he asked me if I would be interested in finishing the Formula 1 season to replace Bourdais I think at this time.
“So, for sure, it’s not something you can say no to, and we started to work around this project, and I started to train physically for it.”
The world was at Loeb’s feet. Argentina was the fifth round of the 2009 WRC season – and marked his fifth win of the season. He was cruising towards yet another WRC title, with the dream of being an F1 driver becoming increasingly more real.
But then it got complicated.
Setbacks in Loeb's WRC campaign prompted a rethink
“Things started to become a bit trickier in my rallying program,” Loeb says. “I was leading the championship but I think I had one mechanical problem, one crash and then another problem in another rally, and then I lost the lead of the championship.
“And from that point, Red Bull said that maybe it was not the right time, and that I should concentrate more on the rally and less on Formula 1.”
Jaime Alguersuari, a 19-year-old Spaniard, ended up replacing Bourdais as Loeb’s full attention diverted to saving his crumbling WRC season.
As Loeb slumped, Hirvonen had taken full advantage and had the master on the ropes. In the end, Loeb did win but only by a single point in a contest that lasted until the very final day of the season.
All F1 hope was not lost, though. Now, the plan had changed: to race in the season finale at Abu Dhabi, which was held one week after the final WRC round in GB.
But on the Thursday of his WRC showdown with Hirvonen, it was confirmed that Loeb’s F1 dream was indeed over. The FIA did not grant him a super license.
“So that was the end of the Formula 1 story,” he says.
Lack of super licence scuppered Abu Dhabi idea
At the time, Loeb told his official website: “My only regret is that it would have been fun to do it. I told myself that I will probably only have one opportunity like this in my life.
“I did not get the super licence this time, [and] I do not see how I could get it without preparation and the necessary tests in F1. Finding an opportunity like that again seems very unlikely. All this put together, I do not think this opportunity will present itself again.”
Attempts were made to ensure Loeb’s F1 story didn’t end there. He is believed to have held conversations with US F1 Team, that never made the grid in 2010, about a drive, but nothing came to pass.
“The idea was to do both Formula 1 and rallying in the next season,” he reveals to DirtFish.
“Maybe it would have been a bit too much, but it was something I couldn’t say no to; anyway, this was the plan at this moment.”
Somehow you get the sense that even if Loeb had split his efforts between the WRC and F1, he would still be the nine-time World Rally champion we all worship on this side of motorsport.
What could he have achieved in Formula 1? As with all drivers, the performance of his car would have played a major part. But everything Loeb did at the time, and has done since, suggests he would have excelled.
It’s fun to pretend we are living in that parallel universe. What a story it would have been.
Additional reporting by Stephen Brunsdon.
