Grapevine: Loeb supports road safety scheme

The raised awareness of ESC came from the European Commission's confirmation of proposals that ESC is standard on all new cars sold after 2012. Loeb said he was happy to get involved in the scheme, which is hoped will save 4,000 lives a year in Europe.

"There are so many cars on the road and 99 per cent of those drivers have no idea what to do if their car gets into a slide," he said.

"You have the situation sometimes when somebody might run into the road and you are too aggressive with the steering, then you don't have the reflex to catch the car. This system (ESC) is working 25 times per second to watch what the car's doing - that's working much harder than any driver ever could."

After stepping from the C2, having tested the car on the dampened asphalt runway with the system on and off, Loeb admitted he was shocked at the car's electronic ability.

"I've never done anything like that before," he said. "It's incredible. Whatever you do, you can't get it to slide. Amazing.

"It's a very good system and one which is going to save lives - that's why I got involved. You know, when I'm driving on the road I'm not always concentrated like I should be, so it's nice to know my car has this system to help if something happened to me."

Seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher is also endorsing the FIA's scheme.