Loeb: “It should go well”

The Citroën WRT looked great in 2011 with Sébastien Loeb et Sébastien Ogier aligned with DS3 WRC official. But tensions quickly tainted the results of the French team and pushed the new recruit of the rafter brand towards Volkswagen. From now on, it is Mikko Hirvonen who will be the Alsatian's teammate. The latter returns exclusively for AUTOhebdo, in the issue on sale tomorrow, on this new path taken by the French manufacturer. Excerpts.

New director, Yves Matton, new teammate, Mikko Hirvonen, and a ninth title to win... that's a lot of new stuff, all that!

Above all, I tell myself that Citroën did everything to ensure that I stayed and that things went as well as possible. Knowing that last year, even if we can't say that it went badly, since we won everything, but we will say that there were… complicated moments. And, at the highest level of PSA, they weren't necessarily super happy with how it all came out on the outside. For example, we did two doubles which went completely unnoticed, in Greece and in Germany (Ogier ahead of Loeb, in both cases, editor's note) because of the mess. So, the leaders moved things accordingly. With Hirvonen, things should go well. I've known him for a while and he seems good.

Did you both talk last year about the possibility of becoming teammates?

We started talking about it in Catalonia. But they weren't big discussions either, we talked about it between two stages (he interrupts, to put cream on his left hand). I have a small scar, and since my hands are a little dry... So, with Mikko, I think it won't be bad. And Yves Matton, I know him since he was team manager of Citroën Sport (between June 2004 and November 2007, editor's note) and I have always had good relations with him.

Find the entire interview with Sébastien Loeb accompanied by our WRC Guide 2012 of 38 pages in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, available tomorrow.