Life Swapping Party

F1 racer Heikki Kovalainen and world rally legend Sebastien Loeb recently tried each other's cars. RICHARD ASHER went along to adjudicate

As the adage goes: if you can drive, you can drive. That was certainly the conclusion you had to reach after watching Renault Formula 1 racer Heikki Kovalainen and World Rally superstar Sebastien Loeb swap cars in France last week.

You'd like to think it would take them days and days of practice to get close to a benchmark time in an unfamiliar machine. But sadly for those of us who think that hard work is as powerful a force as talent, bravery and quick reactions, it didn't. After not a great deal of track and stage time over two days at Paul Ricard and a nearby gravel rally stage, each came astonishingly close to the other's best time.

The reigning World Rally Champion was within a second of Kovalainen when he tried out Heikki's Renault R27 F1 car. Sure, he had more miles and carried less fuel, but that was a startling achievement nonetheless.

Kovalainen was no less impressive when he jumped into Loeb's Citroen C4 WRC. Again, he had more stage time, but to get to within a fraction of Loeb's effort shows that he could quite happily transfer his speed to the forests. Well, he is a Finn after all!

YOU'VE DONE THIS BEFORE, HAVEN'T YOU?

Okay, so neither was a complete novice to the other's discipline. Kovalainen has some stage mileage experience in a Ford Focus WRC car, though mostly from the co-driver's seat. He competed in the Arctic Rally three times between 2003 and '05 - twice alongside personal sponsor Timo Hulkkonen, and in '04 with former works driver Janne Tuohino. In the final year he even took the wheel for a couple of stages.

Loeb psyches himself up for his maiden F1 experience... © Renault F1

Loeb has only done a couple of circuit races but they were far less obscure than a snowy rally in Lapland. The Frenchman was impressive in his two high-profile appearances for Pescarolo Sport in the 2005 and '06 Le Mans 24 Hours events. He retired first time round, but took a strong second in '06.

ADVICE: GIVE AND TAKE

Kovalainen: "Sebastien has been to Ricard before to test for Pescarolo so he has a good idea about the lines, using the kerbs and how to balance the car. I just told him to believe in the downforce - to brake late and really hard. He just had to have confidence and just carry the speed through the corners - I told him the grip will be there, especially in the high-speed corners and under braking. Otherwise he had the basic idea of how to race on a track, so he wasn't completely lost. He just needed fine-tuning."

Loeb: "I didn't tell him anything special. It wasn't the first time he'd been in a WRC car, so he had some experience. I rode with him at first to show him the way - after that he was driving alone."

Kovalainen: "Sebastien told me to just get a feel for the road and the car, but no big advice. When he rode with me he was very good. He told me the first run was a bit careful, the second was a bit too aggressive and the third lap was a good balance. He said I control the car well, I know where it's going and I know how to feel the brakes."

Loeb: "The best advice Heikki gave me was about the different ways to take the corners, the braking points and the right speed to carry. He gave me just what I asked for. It was important for me to speak to him, because he has done hundreds of laps here and I had to understand where I was losing out and where I could go a bit faster."

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Loeb: "The engine! Just coming out of the pitlane you discover how much power you have. Then you get used to it, and it's the high-speed aerodynamic grip that leaves the biggest impression."

Kovalainen: "In the beginning I saw some rocks in the road and was trying to avoid them, but I was told, 'Go over them, it's fine!' To me it felt like something was going to break, but then you go over them and find the tyres and suspension just take it."

Kovalainen was a bit handy in the WRC - he is from Finland! © Renault F1

TECHNIQUE AND REFLECTIONS

Kovalainen: "The C4 gives you a lot of confidence. The balance is very good, so you just have to get the driving technique correct to be fast. You can really attack in it.

"The car gives you the feeling that you want to slide it, but I try not to do it too much because if you do that you can lose time and traction. You need to slide it sometimes on the entry and mid-corner, but not so much on the exit. I found that if I was getting understeer I could just turn the wheel more and the differential would help bring it around. Even in the tight corners you can turn it well. So I think getting the diff setting right must be very important on these cars.

"I guess over a rough surface like that you'd expect it to be more off the ground, a bit more loose and sliding more. But the suspension works very well and you can go over the rough areas in a way you'd never be able to do in a road car or sportscar. That surprises you at first, but then just gives you good feeling and confidence."

Loeb: "The style of driving the F1 car is the same as for the Pescarolo, so my sportscar experience made a big difference. It helped me understand the car quickly and to go fast. Of course, the F1 car is a lot quicker, there's more grip in the corner, there's more power and you can brake later.

"I like to discover new driving sensations, and this was great, something different for me. I enjoyed the change; in fact change - going from asphalt to gravel to snow - is what I enjoy about rallying too. But this was a completely different sensation to rallying. The g-forces are very high and at the end of the test if was difficult for my neck. I'm really happy to have driven an F1 car... I've been dreaming about it for a long time."

WHAT'S THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE?

Kovalainen: "I think that after having a few runs on the track, having learned almost everything about the stage, I had good reference points for the braking so I was confident to brake in the same place every time.

"When rallying becomes difficult, I think, is when you stick a guy next to you and go on a road you've never been on. You do it twice in the recce and then do it at full speed with the guy telling you to go 'flat out' and you've got to do it! That's the tricky bit. Pace notes are the key - once you understand them correctly I think you can be competitive on any surface as long as you can control the car. And I think I can control the car. I took me time to get up to speed; if you put Sebastien and me on a stage for just two runs then I think that's where you'd see a big difference."

Loeb quickly got used to F1 power in this year's Renault © Renault F1

Loeb: It's not easy to learn a Formula 1 car, but after a few laps you can understand quite well how it's working. Traction control helps a lot with the acceleration. But then, to find the limit and do some perfect laps, that's difficult. On the track the approach is a bit different from rallying because you can keep practising and improving every lap."

WERE YOU SURPRISED AT EACH OTHER'S PACE?

Kovalainen: "I thought he would do quite well here. He's good on asphalt in the rally car and of course he's raced on tracks before. So I was not surprised he was on the pace straight away, to be honest. It shows these guys are good, serious drivers."

Loeb: "No - he'd beaten me in a WRC car at the Race of Champions before! He drove perfectly, very well. When I sat next to him it was the first time in a few years that I'd done that, and I was confident. I could see he knew what he was doing, he wasn't crazy and he was really fast! He had a good feeling with the car and he could do what he wanted with it. But he was doing the same stage the whole time - the most difficult part for him would be believing the pace notes on a rally."

DIDN'T THEY DO WELL?

So what did the stopwatch have to say about it all? The rally times haven't been published, but the word is that Kovalainen was just a tenth of a second away from Loeb over a stage of a couple of minutes in duration.

On the circuit, the lap times were there for all to see. Over circuit 03A, one of the shortest of the Ricard configurations at 3.793km, Kovalainen set a benchmark of 1m04.552s. Loeb's reply? 1m05.547s. Remarkable.

HOW ABOUT A FULL-TIME SWAP SOME DAY?

Kovalainen: "Absolutely! I've been interested in rallying since I was a kid and I still want to rally at some point. Right now it's not possible to do any serious rallying of course, but a test or something fun every now and then would be good. And maybe after a few years in F1 I could move to rallying. I'd like to try it at a competitive level at some point in my career.

"People often ask me what I would do if I wasn't in F1, and I always say, 'I'd be a rally driver!' It's exciting, difficult, a big challenge - completely different from F1. You have to judge things better. In F1 you know everything on the track and you're just trying to minimise all the mistakes. In a rally it's more about anticipation and working well with the co-driver."

Loeb: "F1 isn't possible for me. I'm a bit too old and I don't have any experience. But another opportunity to test would definitely be nice!"