What were you doing on Saturday night? Around seven? Eight-time World Rally champion Julien Ingrassia knows exactly what he was doing.
The Frenchman’s mobile lit up.
Séb.
After 168 WRC starts and 54 wins together across a 13-year career, the pair are still close. They still talk. But Saturday evening?
Ingrassia smiled: “I did not ignore him when he called me… he was lucky I was not partying. It was close.”
Minutes after hanging up, there was no partying to be done. Sébastien Ogier had given him one hour to answer the call. Could he come back? Could he co-drive at Secto Rally Finland… the WRC round starting in just four days?
Ingrassia called back. The answer was yes. But before he offers DirtFish any further explanation, in typical Julien fashion, he offers context.
“We have to remember that if I’m here, it’s because something has gone wrong by Vincent’s side and all of our thoughts are with him,” he said.
“OK, we are here. We have a mission to accomplish and, to get the phone call on Saturday night around 7pm and then take the decision within one hour and be in the plane the next day, after five years, almost 2000 days without co-driving in the WRC… I was not fully comfortable if I’m honest.
“Once we were into the action, we made some test on Monday morning, the DNA is speaking again. We will do the job.”
The pair got some running time at Toyota’s test site in on Monday and were quickly back into a stride they thought they’d left behind as world champions at the end of 2021.
Detailing more of the phone conversation, Ingrassia half-joked: “The first question Séb asked me: ‘What is your weight?’
Ogier interjects with the positive response, adding: “He said it was exactly the same as before.”
Ingrassia: “I weigh myself one hour after he called me and I sent [the result] to the engineer.”
As Ingrassia rightly pointed out, first thoughts are with Landais and his family. But seeing Ogier and Ingrassia back together again at the recce was a wonderful, half-decade rewind. Now let’s see how the mission plays out.
