Loeb: 'F1 is just a possibility'

Sébastien, you must be happy to find victory again, after four rallies dominated by Ford. A mandatory victory?
It's been a while since we won. It was the moment when we had to try to reverse the trend. It had been four rallies that we hadn't won, we had lost the lead in the championship. If Mikko won here, he would find himself with at least a five-point lead in the championship. It would have become much more complicated because I would not have been able to rely only on myself. I should have counted on someone?s help or on their fault. If he finished second twice in the last two rallies, the championship was lost. We really had to try to do something. To have managed to win and come back to a point is a relief.

Did doubt creep in during these four months without victory?
No. I made a mistake in Greece, it's part of the game. There was a combination of circumstances, I was unlucky. I told myself that there was no reason, that it wasn't going to last forever. It had to work again one day, you had to believe in it. But it?s true that, psychologically, it?s difficult to arrive at a rally knowing that you abandoned the last two. We say to ourselves ??We have to go but we shouldn't do it again??.

Do you think you are back on a winning streak?
I hope. The motivation is there. Here, we had to fight but we saw that we were still in the game, that the car was still running. The next rally is Spain, a rally which has often been successful for us. But it is not a foregone conclusion, even if we are favorites. Hirvonen went very quickly last year. They will prepare well and we will have to be wary of them. Mikko is capable of doing beautiful things. He showed it in Finland and here too, because he was not easy to beat.

Was the pressure difficult to handle?
At the start of the rally, either we came to win or we lost. As the race progresses, the pressure increases. When we dominate, we are in front, but the others are close behind and they will continue at full speed until the last special? We're glad it's over.

Is it complicated to have four competitors of your level?
I only have one opponent, it's Hirvonen. At the finish of a special stage, someone warned me that I had taken 12 seconds off the lead of the rally. I didn't even know that I had taken the lead because I was only looking at Hirvonen's times.

Don't you think it's a shame to narrowly miss the double?
Dani had a very good rally. He rode very fast, he put pressure on Hirvonen all the way. Indirectly, it affected me too. Even if Hirvonen wanted to slow down from me, he had to go all out because he had Dani behind him. So I was the same in front, I was at full strength. Of course I would have liked him to be second but, when we arrived, we weren't counting on Dani being ahead of Hirvonen.

Your tactic, Saturday (lose 15 seconds on Hirvonen so as not to open the road this Sunday), didn't scare you?
I had an eleven second lead before doing that, it wasn't enough. Today, I take 18 seconds from him. If we assume that we are at the same level, the margin was not large enough. Of course, when I stop, it seems a long time. We feel like we had to let go for an eternity. It's frustrating. All day long, we fight, we take risks to gain tenths here and there. And, at the end, we let go of fifteen or twenty seconds. It?s a bit of a shame to have to do that. But we're not playing marbles, there's a championship at stake. The stakes are too high. If we consider that the best way to win is to do that, then we do it. Even if I don't like this gesture. It is the regulation that is poorly done.

Where is your contract with Citroën Racing for the next seasons?
We are in negotiations. It?s almost signed. It will last two years, with possibly an exit clause if I want to stop after one year. Today, I don't know how many more years I want to run. Maybe it's five years, or maybe one year?

We talked a lot about Formula 1 about you. What about?
There are contacts with Red Bull for a long time, for the possibility of doing Abu Dhabi at the end of the year. But that only remains a possibility. There are things that are announced, without anyone consulting me directly. No, today, nothing has been done. Neither for Abu Dhabi, nor for next year. Today, I'm rallying. And the day we have to talk about F1, we will talk about it.

Does it bother you that people talk to you more about Formula 1 than Rallying?
It bothers me that it takes on so much importance for nothing. People say to me “there, it was said that you were going to do Abu Dhabi”? For my part, nothing happened! When we talk about rallying, we talk about it much less. But, as soon as we touch on F1, it takes on enormous proportions.

However, Olivier Quesnel leaves the door open for you to line up in F1 after the season. WRC?
The door is open but it has been open for a long time. It's a plus. For a driver, doing an F1 Grand Prix is ​​a dream. If I get an opportunity like that, like I always said, it would be hard to refuse. It's like the tests carried out with Red Bull last year. It was a great time, I learned lots of things, I had a blast. If I had the opportunity, I would say yes, but nothing has been done.

Do you train physically for this eventuality?
Physically, F1 and rallying are not the same thing. Same for the 908 (the car of Peugeot en Endurance, editor’s note). I train a little, but not necessarily for F1. If I ever want to go racing, there are other things I need to work on.

As regards the 24 Hours of Le Mans, do you hope to compete with them again?
I know that the WRC calendar would allow me to do it next year, so why not. But I don't want to be a burden in a professional team. Until now I have raced with a private team, Pescarolo. It went very well, we came second, it was great. But, when there is a manufacturer like Peugeot officially entered in a race? I'm not a circuit driver. If I'm three seconds behind the other drivers each lap, that's not going to do it. I don't want to penalize a team. That?s why I did some testing, and why I?m going to do some more. But I don't consider myself ready.

* Interview carried out before Sébastien Loeb receives a penalty depriving him of the victory