For years, the names Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia were glued to one another.
As a partnership, it just worked. As a partnership, it dominated the World Rally Championship.
How on earth do you go about replicating that magic?
When Ogier decided to scale back his rallying commitments after his eighth title success in 2021, his right-hand man Ingrassia stopped competing for good.
Benjamin Veillas was the natural choice to replace him given he’d tested with Ogier plenty of times before, but when the clock was ticking the chemistry just wasn’t as Ogier needed.
Up stepped Vincent Landais.
Transferring from Pierre-Louis Loubet’s Ford Puma Rally1 to Ogier’s Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 for Rally Japan in 2022, Landais got the job for the following seasons and the rest, as they say, is history.
Ogier’s coronation as a nine-time world champion at last weekend’s Rally Saudi Arabia was a milestone moment, but perhaps meant even more to Landais who topped the world for the very first time.
“He’s motivated me and made me younger again,” Ogier said of his co-driver. “Together we achieved great things and today honestly I was almost more happy for him [than me].
“I’m super happy to welcome him into the club of the world champions. He deserves it more than anybody,” the Frenchman added. “He’s been doing an amazing job on my side and he played a big role on that win because this fresh blood, this motivation and this smile I see on his face every time we announce… I tell him, ‘OK, we’re going to do this rally on top’. He’s always super, like, normal you know like someone living his dream and now achieving a world title is the life achievement.
“He has worked so many years for that and like I said now he can celebrate, it’s more than deserved.”
Landais was “feeling very proud” to become the fourth French co-driver to become WRC champion after Daniel Grataloup, Bernard Ocelli and Ingrassia.
“It has been many years of working and sacrifices, and it was worth it,” Landais smiled. “Thanks again to my man, he made the job and I made my best beside him to bring him to that one.”
Working with Ogier has greatly improved Landais’ craft.
“If I look at my level now from what I came from when I joined him, I’m so different now,” he explained. “I do many more things than before even better, and I’m getting even better rally after rally.
“It’s a huge chance for me to be beside him, he teaches me a lot of things and thanks again for that. But I want more. I would like more again.”
Ogier’s reaction to a ninth title
Equalling Sébastien Loeb’s record was not Ogier’s motivation for becoming champion again, four years after his last success. But how does being a nine-time champion make him feel?
“Of course, I’m super happy, but it’s not even [about] the nine,” he said. “It’s just like, of course, making this championship one more time is… I just struggle to put words on it right now. I need a bit of time to process it all. I just feel empty, like always after such a demanding race.
“But yeah, this journey and this year has been incredible. So yeah, glad to be there, to come back on nine, of course, even if it wasn’t a real target or the fixation and objective, it feels great to join Daniel [Elena] and Séb on top of the WRC ranking.
“Of course, I’m proud of that. Becs [Williams, WRC commentator] reminded me on stage that when I started back in 2008, OK, they were not yet nine, but they were already like dominating the sport a lot and they were achieving numbers that many people, probably me included, were thinking would never be matched or probably taken ever.
“But records are here to be broken – they’re not broken just yet! No, I’m joking. It’s life, you know, things are going sometimes like this and in every sport you see some other guy coming and breaking what you achieve anyway. So that’s why I never really focus too much on that.
“Soon I’m 42 years old and I’m still enjoying so much what I do and still performing actually close to my very best – or maybe at my very best.”
Evans would’ve deserved it too
Ogier has now won a third of his championships in a final round shootout with his Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans.
He was quick to recognize the job he and co-driver Scott Martin did this year, falling four points short at the finish.
Ogier: “That’s very important to say that this championship feels good also because of the battle that we had. Elfyn and Scott have been very, very strong, very consistent the whole year.
“The fight lasted to the very last stage of the season so that shows how intense it was. Like i told him after the podium – you know, it’s always this moment and of course I’m super happy and I don’t want to say I feel sorry [for him] because that’s not like this, it’s a sport, there can be one winner – but Elfyn and Scott, in this moment I was really thinking it’s a shame there cannot be two winners because he could also deserve it this year.”
