LOEB ON HIS F1 SHOT
A SIXTH WORLD RALLY Championship title had just been clinched, yet all anybody wanted to talk to Sebastien Loeb about was Abu Dhabi and the chance for him to make his competitive Formula 1 debut.
Having tested a Red Bull, Loeb was invited to drive a Toro Rosso vacated by Sebastien Bourdais at the final race of the 2009 season. Ultimately, the powers that be wouldn’t allow it and declined Loeb a superlicence. But, even if the paperwork had come through, Loeb admits he still wasn’t keen.
“I wasn’t prepared to drive a car which wasn’t capable of winning,” says Loeb. “I didn’t have a specific ambition.
“I’m not sure that would have been the best thing. Without the full preparation, it’s not easy. You see today with a lot of young drivers who are talented, but not in the best team or the best car and not getting the full test before the race, to be at the end it’s not easy. I don’t think this race would bring anything too important to my career.
“I’m more happy that I had the opportunity to test this [Red Bull RB4] car and I still believe driving in rallies suits better to my personality and my driving; I have no regrets about not going to Formula 1.”
After running the RB4 at Silverstone in 2008 and winter testing at Barcelona the following year, Loeb admitted it was the stopping – not the starting – that really excited him.
“People talk about the power of a Formula 1 car,” he says, “but you forget about the power after two laps. It’s not that which is most impressive. The power of the Pikes Peak [Peugeot 208] going up the hill is more impressive than the Formula 1 car on the track. What was impressive in the Red Bull car is to ask yourself, ‘Where are the limits? Where is the limit in the really high-speed corners? Where’s the limit for the braking?’
“I remember the braking point at the end of the straight at Barcelona is at 80 metres [from the apex] and you are arriving at 320km/h, you feel like the corner is just here, right in front of you and yet you are still flat on the throttle. The sensation to get this feeling in the mind and to know the limit is there was just so impressive.”