CloseMight have slipped some people´s attention after last weekend´s F1 race, but Sebastien Loeb has won his fifth WRC title which makes him the most successful driver both in overall victories and championship titles.
As a gift, Red Bull offered him a test in the RB4 F1 car at November 17th, unlike last years test in the Renault F1 car he will join the official test day and drive amongst the regular F1 test drivers.
Nov 4, 2008 2:36:25 AM
Nov 4, 2008 8:30:42 AM
Ferdie:
Apart from his F1 test at Nov. 17th, he will swap cars with Stephane Sarrazin of Peugeot at the 27th in Le Castellet. Loeb will drive the 908 HDi LMS car in the afternoon, after Sarrazin, part-time rallye driver by the way, spent some time behind the wheel of the C4 WRC in the morning.
2nd overall at Le Mans in 2006 driving a Pescarolo-Judd, between the mighty Audis.
He is a complete driver. I wonder if he would fit in F1?
reginos:
He is a complete driver. I wonder if he would fit in F1?
His performance in last year´s F1 test with Renault and at the annual Race of Champions were impressive but not entirely outstanding. The reason is very simple, WRC drivers are chosing brake points and lines intuitively, opposite to racedrivers who exercise the same lines repeatedly. Kovalainen, who drove the WRC car last year in exchange, posted very fast times but he copied Loeb´s driving style, braking and lines in his run. The F1 car was set to maximum downforce to ease the exploration of limits. It certainly requires some adaption to monopostos with aerodynamic aids since, according to Loeb, the WRC drives like a truck in comparison. According to Pescarolo, Loeb´s braking manner was more demanding on the brakes in the long run but this wouldn´t be hard to solve either.
I am very looking forward to this year´s test for Red Bull and Peugeot!
Sebastien Loeb posted the 8th fastest time at yesterday´s F1 test in Barcelona:
1. Takuma Sato (Toro Rosso) 1.20,763 Min.; 121 Runden
2. Sébastien Buemi (Toro Rosso) 1.21,071; 117
3. Alexander Wurz (Honda) 1.21,198; 77
4. Pedro de la Rosa (McLaren-Mercedes) 1.21,417; 65
5. Luca Badoer (Ferrari) 1.22,038; 93
6. Gary Paffett (McLaren-Mercedes) 1.22,235; 47
7. Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber) 1.22,341; 56
8. Sébastien Loeb (Red Bull) 1.22,503; 82
9. Nelson Piquet jr. (Renault) 1.22,560; 80
10. Christian Klien (BMW Sauber) 1.22,883; 53
11. Nico Hülkenberg (Williams) 1.23,467; 116
12. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Force India) 1.23,794; 86
13. Adrian Sutil (Force India) 1.23,832; 88
14. Marc Gené (Ferrari) 1.24,117; 32
15. Bruno Senna (Honda) 1.24,343; 39
16. Giedo van der Garde (Renault) 1.24,908; 27
17. Lucas di Grassi (Honda) 1.25,512; 48
Next to him were Bruno Senna, Luca di Grassi, Takuma Sato and Sebastien Buemi testing cars for Honda and Toro Rosso, aiming at a cockpit for next year´s season.
Some teams were performing test for the upcoming season, so cars were partially updated to 09´s specs (tires, wings, KERS) and might have been slower. Gary Paffett is in fact McLaren´s F1 testdriver so he does know the car well. If one compares Loeb´s time with the ones´ from Senna and di Grassi, which perform a series of tests to receive a cockpit in F1 sooner or later, he certainly did very well.
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