Loeb: “I’m still in the improvisation generation”

Sébastien Loeb remained discreet Rally of Sweden since the Alsatian had to settle for 7th place almost 2 minutes behind the winner Ott Tänak (Toyota) et à près d’une minute de son coéquipier Thierry Neuville. The Alsatian, however, had a weekend without making any mistakes.

“Obviously fighting for sixth place throughout the rally has not happened often in my career, and I assure you I would always prefer to play for the win, but personally, I think we had a good Rally of the Sweden with Danos when we take into account all external elements », explained the nine-time champion WRC.

If Sébastien Loeb had not raced in the Swedish Rally for several seasons, it was mainly the preparation which seemed to have disturbed the Alsatian.

“It's been six years since we last set wheels in Sweden and we discovered all the special stages unlike our opponents who have been doing them for three or four years. In addition, the preparation for rallies has really changed. Today, pilots work a lot on videos from previous years and even those of others! It's new to have access to all of the other pilots' on-board cameras. »

“I never worked on the videos before the rallies but only after the reconnaissance. Watching another driver's videos, with their rating system, never spoke to me. But it must obviously pay off when we see the pace adopted by the 'young people' from the first pass. It's almost a typical 'circuit' preparation and they ride by heart! I'm still in the improvisation generation. That doesn't take anything away from their performance, they're going really, really fast up front, but it's just a different approach and preparation than I've always known. »

Sébastien Loeb must also still gain experience behind the wheel of his new vehicle after a busy start to the year following the Dakar and his entry into the Monte-Carlo Rally.

“We had only done 200 kilometers of snow testing with the car. It was also our first kilometers with the i20 Coupe WRC in gravel configuration. I have to say I'm really happy with it. The feeling is good, even better than on the asphalt for the moment. It is well balanced and I feel comfortable behind the wheel. Obviously, I would need more driving to fully exploit it but the beginnings are promising,” indicated the Frenchman.

“In terms of performance, Thierry proves that she is in the game. We all agree that the Toyota is still a cut above in general, especially in terms of aero. With the compact chassis of the Yaris, the masses are hyper-centered and they have a good base. We must therefore continue to work to further improve our performance, but we are not starting very far either. »

Sébastien Loeb will be able to take his revenge at the Tour de Corse on the weekend of March 28, an event where he remained undefeated from 2005 to 2008 with the Xsara WRC and the C4 WRC.

“The main problem arises during the testing days. By only doing six rallies this year, I will only be allowed six days of testing and not one more. But that's the rule, I knew that. It's up to us to take advantage of the rallies to continue to understand the car. My next meeting will be the Tour de Corse and a day of asphalt testing is planned for March. We will have to make the most of this test to arrive in better conditions than in the first two rounds. With Danos (Elena, the co-driver), we would love to achieve a great result there! », concluded the former world champion.

Discover the analysis of the Swedish Rally carried out by our special correspondent in the central section of the Guide F1 AUTOhebdo available in digital version on all platforms and on kiosks.