Loeb's return could be a Schumacher-like letdown

Craig Breen turn away now. The answer to the following question will drive you mad. Guaranteed.

Late last year, I asked Sebastien Loeb about his primary motivation in returning to the World Rally Championship. In typical fashion, he gave the question due consideration before answering.

"I don't want to take a lot of pressure," he said. "It's really for fun."

Fun. Fun.

Let's be absolutely frank here, Loeb's desire to have fun on the next two rounds of the World Rally Championship will hinder the development of Citroen's number two driver. Fact.

Breen's confidence in himself and the C3 WRC couldn't be higher right now. He's come off the back of the event of his life and a career-best result in Sweden, flying high, ready to land in Mexico and take advantage of a near-perfect seventh on the road starting position before round four in Corsica - an event he would start with only one result in mind: victory.

Instead, Breen and co-driver Scott Martin will be... well, who knows what they'll be doing for the next nine and a half weeks. There's no recce for them in Mexico and doing anything other than driving the #11 Citroen in Corsica would be pretty hard for the Waterford man to stomach.

My problem lies with Citroen. The decision to replace Breen was wrong. Pure and simple

Argentina and the end of April, his next scheduled WRC appearance, suddenly seems a very, very long way away.

At least, in the intervening period, Loeb will be having fun.

Short-termism doesn't come close.

I might be coming across as a bit anti-Loeb here. I'm not. I've been fortunate enough to cover all 78 of Loeb's wins and pretty much every one of his 169 starts in the WRC and I've got nothing but absolute respect for him and what he achieved.

And his return to the WRC is fabulous, fabulous news for rallying and the media. It's a great story - one I very much look forward to covering.

My problem lies with Citroen. The decision to replace Breen was wrong. Pure and simple.

What's more worrying, for me, is the message this once great rallying force is currently sending to the wider world. Few can, could or should be in any doubt of the marketing value of taking Loeb to Mexico. But how does it benefit the team?

Will Citroen sell more metal with the nine-time champion in Mexico, Corsica and Spain or would it get more out of furthering Breen's confidence and capacity in the C3? Whichever way you look at it, there's nothing more worthwhile than shouting about winning and, on the back of what we saw in the snow last month, there's more chance of that win coming from Breen than Loeb.

Pondering this column, I couldn't ignore another great return and the one and only time I genuinely doubted Sir Stirling Moss.

I know, bit of a change of direction. Stick with me here...

A couple of races into Michael Schumacher's Formula 1 return, Moss was asked his opinion. In short, he said Schumacher was past it and in danger of undoing all he'd achieved in taking seven titles in 11 years.

Nonsense. Ridiculous, I thought at the time.

Let's not forget, in Schumacher's final year with Ferrari he was second in the championship - hardly indicative of a man on the slide. And it wasn't like he'd spent the intervening three years on the sofa washing spritzkuchen (an epic iced doughnut-type arrangement) down with Hofbrau.

He was primed and ready. And Sir Stirling was wide of the mark and wrong. I thought.

Turns out it was me who was wrong.

Three years back in F1 and Schumacher was a shadow of his former self. Granted, Mercedes' Ws 01, 02 and 03 weren't exactly the glove on his hand he'd enjoyed with Ferrari and Benetton, but they weren't that bad either.

Likening Loeb's return to what Schumacher did between 2010 and '12 is slightly tenuous - as you've already read, Loeb's coming back temporarily, and for fun. Schumacher was in it to win it. Again.

Fun or not, does Sir Stirling's thinking hold true for Loeb as well? Quite possibly.

Loeb tested the C3 WRC for a couple of days last year, with more meaningful running for Mexico coming on Spanish gravel in September. What did the team think? There was lots of positivity, plenty of folk talking about the undoubted morale boost Loeb being back would deliver. The return of the king was a popular headline at the time.

But what about the speed?

Rarely does a WRC team talk about testing performance unless it's centred on the back-to-backing of a new car with the old car. It's understandable, weather and road conditions can and do change significantly from one day to the next and comparisons can be tricky.

Nobody said anything.

Digging deeper took a while, but in the end there was the admission that Loeb's pace hadn't, should we say, cast the other drivers into the shade. He hadn't jumped in the car and blown the best of the rest into the weeds.

It's five years since Loeb competed at world level on gravel and, in that time, the level of competition has stepped up considerably - and the pace of the cars is definitely above what it was when he departed.

Courtesy of a cleaner road in Leon for someone in his start position, I'd be astonished if Loeb wasn't in the top three in Mexico on Friday night. But I'd be quite surprised if he's still there on Sunday afternoon.

Loeb didn't jump in the car and blow the best of the rest into the weeds

Corsica could be harder to call, especially if the weather cuts up rough. His experience of the island roads remains relevant and greater than anything else any other driver can muster.

But it should be offered from behind the door of a C3 with the #12, not #11, on it. He should be in a third car as team-mate to Kris Meeke and Breen, not a replacement.

Not that the speed matters overly. I'm absolutely not being flippant here, but Loeb's set his stall out: he crosses the Atlantic in search of fun rather than risking everything in a bid to reignite a WRC career or assist in Citroen's return to former glories.

Having spoken at length with PSA Group CEO Carlos Tavares in Monte Carlo earlier this season, I'm increasingly clear about the decision-making process at Citroen. Put it this way, had Yves Matton had more input into said process, he might not have jumped ship to run rallying for the FIA.

Demonstrably, Tavares calls the tune. Why wouldn't he? He's got the sharpest of sharp automotive minds and a commercial ability second to none; the PSA Group's financial turnaround is proof of that.

But I simply don't see the extension of that fiscal policy working in a global motorsport programme.

Tavares says Citroen's budget is bigger than M-Sport's championship-winning purse from last year. His logic is that an axe therefore could and would be swung, slashing the cash available and apparently forcing the team into short-sighted, short-term decisions - such as not sending Breen to Mexico for the recce. Citroen's flagrant disregard for the building of experience - a cornerstone of success in rallying - is both breathtaking and deeply worrying.

And Tavares' attempts to compare budgets with M-Sport is, to me, nonsensical. M-Sport is a private entity with a very different business model to a car manufacturer. We're not quite comparing apples with oranges, more likening a Pink Lady to a cooking apple.

The testing budget, for example, is like a corner with a big rock on the inside. It can't be cut. Compromise on testing and you can go home. You won't win. You can't win.

And that's the bigger picture to this Loeb or Breen debate. The answer's not one or the other, it's both - as Meeke rightly pointed out when the team line-up news first broke.

Citroen will benefit hugely from the return of the king. But Breen remains the future.