Sébastien Ogier’s chase for a record-breaking 10th World Rally Championship is nearing impossibility, given his 63-point deficit and only 70 points left to claim.
But by starting next month’s Rally Italy Sardinia, the Frenchman will break one WRC record and have the chance to break another.
That’s because Ogier’s start, and result, in Chile means he now jointly shares two records: the most WRC starts, and the most WRC podiums.
Most starts
Jari-Matti Latvala took the record for most WRC starts from double world champion Carlos Sainz, who ironically is set to be replaced in third by Spanish compatriot Dani Sordo when Sordo starts in Sardinia.
Latvala drove for Ford, Volkswagen and Toyota across his 213 starts
The Finn became the first driver to break the 200-start barrier, eventually amassing a total of 213 rallies.
Today Latvala acts as Toyota’s team principal while also competing in the FIA European Historic Rally Championship with his own Celica. However, he has started at least one WRC event since 2023 by competing in his home event: Rally Finland.
That means his tally has been steadily growing, but not as rapidly as Ogier who has been contesting most (but not all) of the rallies for the past five seasons.
Ogier is now level with former Volkswagen team-mate Latvala on 213 events, so Sardinia will be his 214th start in the WRC and therefore will make him the record holder.
“My career is definitely surpassing every expectation I could have had when I started rallying. So that’s a fact,” Ogier told DirtFish.
“The positive is I’m still there and matching the all-time record this weekend of start of Jari-Matti. Sorry, Jari-Matti, I know you’re a little bit sad from this moment!” he smiled. “But I’m sure you can still catch it at some point with some rally to start.
“Or who knows? Maybe Rally1, one day…”
In their respective 213 starts, Ogier has achieved more than Latvala – and not just in terms of his nine titles compared to zero. Ogier has won 51 more events, 317 more stages and achieved 53 more podiums…
Most podiums
Loeb's record of 120 WRC podiums could be surpassed by Ogier
…which leads us nicely onto the other record Ogier now shares: the most number of podiums.
Second place for Ogier in Chile was the 120th of his career, which ties him with the other great Sébastien: Mr Loeb.
Loeb has the edge over Ogier in achieving 120 podiums from 184 starts compared to Ogier’s 213, and in winning 80 rallies vs Ogier’s 69.
Ogier has more second-place finishes (31 vs 29) and has finished third 20 times, with Loeb standing on the podium’s final step on just 11 occasions.
The record Ogier has extended
One record Ogier already held prior to Chile was manufacturers’ title contributions, having helped Citroën, Volkswagen, M-Sport Ford and Toyota to championships over the span of his career.
Nobody has contributed to more WRC manufacturers' titles than Ogier
Toyota’s sixth successive title, and 10th in total, was the 13th manufacturers’ title Ogier has been involved in, placing him now three clear of Loeb.
Ogier has won the most titles for Toyota (six), claiming four for VW, two for Citroën and one for M-Sport Ford.
When he’s been a top-class WRC driver, he’s only failed to win the manufacturers’ title four times. The first was his maiden season in 2009 when competing for Citroën’s Junior Team, before missing out three years in a row from 2018-20 when he switched from M-Sport Ford to Citroën to Toyota.
Toyota (2018) and Hyundai (2019-20) were victorious in those seasons, with Loeb contributing to Hyundai’s trophies to add to the eight he claimed with Citroën.
