Loeb's back - and he can win the Monte

Having eased his way out of an upside-down Citroen DS 3 WRC not an hour before, Sebastien Loeb smiled and reliably informed me there was always something to celebrate.

And with that, the Frenchman turned and walked away from his 168th and final World Rally Championship appearance on home ground in 2013.

Gone. Done. Finished. With the emphasis firmly on celebration rather than commiseration.

An hour or so on from there, Loeb said goodbye to thousands and thousands of fans inside Strasbourg's Zenith exhibition centre. The WRC had genuinely never seen mass emotion like it; Loeb's were the only dry eyes in the house.

France 2013 was supposed to be Loeb's WRC farewell © McKlein

As those French folk trooped out into the gathering gloom of an October evening, two autumns ago, the eerie feeling was born very much of an era having passed. The hangover had already set in.

Somebody's popped a late morning Alka-Seltzer and heads are clearing again. It's take two this week; the end's coming all over again.

Or is it? There are those firmly of the belief that this season we're going to be seeing a bit more of the man who has already set 900 WRC fastest stage times. There are those firmly of the belief this is part one of a tetralogy. Or is it a series when it's more than a trilogy? Whatever.

Some reckon the fella from Haguenau will be adding a few more to his collection of 1619 points. Possibly even a 79th win. Citroen remains resolute: it's a one-off. No more.

There's no doubting a handful of outings from the nine-time world champion would add a certain something to the season ahead.

Speaking hypothetically of course... imagine if Loeb came to, say, just for the sake of argument, Sardinia. Not having competed or collected any points, he'd be saddled with a starting spot way down the order. Probably 10 or so places behind the championship leader.

Hang on a minute, isn't 10th on the road the Holy Grail in the likes of Italy this year? Isn't 10th on the road the position offering the super-swept stages, where every apex is clipped with at least an extra 10 klicks?

VW isn't best pleased by Loeb's return © LAT

Ah, I see.

The above scenario is seriously bothering Volkswagen team principal Jost Capito.

Capito told me: "What bothers me is if Loeb does come and maybe wins three or four rallies, then he goes away and doesn't do the whole championship.

"From the outside, everybody looks at what Loeb has done and they say: 'Hey, this guy would have won the title if he had done the whole championship - the other guy only won because Loeb wasn't there...' Such a move would devalue the championship."

Hmm. Normally I'm on the same page as you Jost, but I'm not buying it this time. I want Loeb back. He's a legend and the service park's a wee bit short on them right now.

And anyway, you and your boys have just won 22 of the past 26 rounds of the world championship, surely we can share the love a little bit here?

Granted, I'll give you a certain slant on the playing field, but at the same time Mk I Seb's been going around in circles for a season while Seb the successor has recently rekindled the kind of spell-binding form that would threaten all of Loeb's records.

Citroen's a manufacturer well used to winning and its first season without a podium-topper since 2001 has left it smarting (and that's no reflection on Kris Meeke or Mads Ostberg - both of whom did fine jobs finding their feet with a new team last season).

A win or two for the French this time around would offer a very welcome shot in the arm on the WRC side of the Versailles factory.

Loeb has won the Monte on a comeback appearance before, though his 2006 absence was only a brief one © LAT

A Loeb win on the Monte this week would pretty much blow both arms off.

Could it happen? Absolutely.

When it comes to motorsport in Monte Carlo, anything can happen: Olivier Panis in a Ligier JS43 in 1996 anybody? And Loeb will start from considerably higher than 14th on the grid.

The last time Loeb took time out from the WRC was in 2006, when he fell off his motocross bike and broke his shoulder.

The 2007 Monte was his first event back. It was also the first event for Citroen's C4 WRC. Standing on the finish line on the Col de la Chau, lights pierced the miserable Ardeche night. Just under 14 minutes after he'd dropped the clutch 18 miles north up the D76 in St Jean en Royans, Loeb slowed to a halt.

He'd taken almost 10 seconds out of his team-mate Dani Sordo. Crucially, he'd done Monte Carlo 2006 winner Marcus Gronholm to the tune of almost a second a mile.

Day one, stage one and Gronholm was a spent force. The Finn glared at the poor fellow writing his stage time on the board. Words were not needed.

That's what Loeb can do on this event. And, don't forget, the conditions that year were more akin to a traditional Sanremo rather than the kind of Monte Carlo weather that would keep greats like Colin McRae and Richard Burns awake at night.

Loeb's first Monte 'win' didn't stand © LAT

Loeb's record in this part of the world stands him apart from everybody. He's won it seven times, but that could so easily have been nine had Citroen not changed his tyres illegally in 2002, when a two-minute penalty dropped Loeb to second behind Tommi Makinen on only his second start on the world's most famous rally.

And then there was that left-hander in Pierlas in 2006. Loeb slipped off the road and into a ditch in 2006, but 'superallied' his way back to second.

Loeb belongs on these roads and these roads really do belong to him. Nobody has his ability to fully understand what that patch of shiny asphalt's telling them; or where to look for grip just before sunrise on a north-facing tightening right.

When you add that kind of sixth sense to Loeb's ability to deal with the spontaneous stuff better than pretty much anybody else and then factor in natural talent, it's little wonder he's in with a shot this week.

Loeb came close to returning to the WRC on his home round in France last year and much as that would have delighted thousands of Alsatians, this is the one for Loeb and his Monegasque co-driver Daniel Elena.

They're part of this rally's fabric; part of the magic of Monte.

And, trust me, it really is magic.

Granted, Burns and McRae weren't believers. In fact, both Brits hated it. They hated the fact that so much was left to chance.

McRae was not a Monte fan © LAT

McRae's view was also tainted by Burzet in 1994. The Scot simply couldn't fathom how he'd ended up off the road. The notes were right, everything had seemed OK, except for the snow on the road.

It was only when he stepped out of his Impreza 555 and saw 'spectators' standing with shovels in their hands that he understood. He confirmed his dislike for the event on the final night, when he drove into a house.

The Monte Carlo really is an absolute nightmare for the teams. Because so much really is left to chance and to the weather.

Take Saturday, for example. Just when you're sitting down to lunch, the lead crews on the Monte will be nowhere to be seen, buried deep in the centre of their team's control rooms, drinking in data from everywhere.

Weather crews on the stages will report surface and ambient temperatures, humidity, cloud cover, everything; tyre technicians will talk optimum working windows for the soft or super-soft and then you get to stud retention for the top two miles of Sisteron. Always ice there. Always.

And here's the best bit: you've got to second guess what the weather's going to do because the boots being fitted aren't just for Prunieres - the stage 20 miles outside of the service park in Gap. Oh no, those same tyres need to work for Sisteron-Thoard, on a road 60 miles south through the mountains. And yes, it's dry at the start right now. But the cars don't roll up there for another three hours...

Spin the wheel, roll the dice; from the moment this thing starts outside the world's most famous Casino on Thursday night, this is a gambler's rally.

Monte Carlo is a glamorous way to kickstart the WRC year © McKlein

But it's also a rally with great heritage and a real sense of history. First run in 1911 as a way to entice northern Europeans down through the Alps for some winter sunshine, this event remains one of motorsport's most endearing and popular on the calendar.

And part of its charm comes from its maverick organising body, the Automobile Club de Monaco. The ACM has, in the past, played the part of an intransigent and idiosyncratic old uncle who still refuses to consider a Sunday without a double-breasted tweed three-piece.

This week, access to the media centre will only be granted once one's pass has been given a thorough once-over from the season's smartest officials, resplendent in blazer and club tie. The ACM makes no apology for an unremitting desire to maintain exclusivity. It's a club, you know.

And all of that adds a mystique to the whole thing. Monaco's like that. It's excessive, eccentric and extremely well capable of reminding you of your place in this world. A message regularly conveyed by white-gloved policeman, who are only too happy to put the odd, optimistic driver right.

I mean, he wasn't to know was he? Can you imagine? A five-year-old Ford Focus with a wheel trim missing in Casino Square? What was he thinking of... It really is that kind of place.

But you leave there, head for the hills and onto some of the most beautiful mountain roads around.

Bryan Bouffier is a master of the Monte Carlo lottery © McKlein

And the best of all has to be Turini. Technically known this year as SS14, La Bollene Vesubie-Sospel. But to us, it's Turini. Always will be.

Watching cars cross this particular Col comes with an atmosphere all of its own. That's largely because the massive crowds have used their roadside fires to keep warm only partly by standing around them; mostly core temperatures are kept up by heating vin chaud over the fire, then consuming it by the bucket.

There's no way of saying this without sounding like a terrible arse, so I apologise in advance... but I've only done Turini by helicopter. Landing alongside the road 10 minutes before the cars arrive and departing to chase the top 10 down through the hairpins is one heck of an experience. But, strange as it might sound, spending the night in a campervan partying all night is what this one's really all about.

Unfortunately, Turini runs on Sunday morning this year in an effort to fall in with WRC Promoter's desire for the Powerstage to run at the right time.

In years gone by, the ACM has left the FIA in no doubt as to who rules the rally world in January, but maybe the old uncle is becoming slightly more benign as he passes into his 104th year. The fireworks might not work as well, but the ambiance will be just the same, the snowball fights just as fierce if the expected snow does deliver in time for the weekend.

In another break with tradition, the road section through the village of Antraigues, near Valence, is missing this year. What's the problem with that? Well, it leaves a hole in French television's live schedule - usually Sebastiens Loeb and Ogier would be beamed to an expectant nation as they took their first bite of an apple pie from La Remise, a village patisserie that has been feeding WRC stars a slice of local culture for more years than anybody cares to remember.

The Monte - it's not your normal round of the World Rally Championship...