Ogier: Selfish, ruthless and right

The road sign from heaven arrived in the lanes close to home earlier this week: 'Skid risk. Max speed 20'. Men in orange trousers unwittingly created Rally Australia's Beraking stage on my doorstep. And it would have been wrong, wholly wrong, not to put it to good use.

I gave the Tar a good 15 minutes to bake before I was wheeling my high-mileage 120d down the road. And for the next hour I drove the same stretch over and over again, enormously sideways and all in the name of research. I took the opportunity to see what kind of effect road sweeping - that aspect of rallying that has so enraged Sebastien Ogier recently - really has. See... research.

Those in the know in the World Rally Championship reckon every car that passes is worth 0.1 second per kilometre. So, a driver running 10th on the road will have a second per kilometre advantage over the fella up front.

Out of diesel and in need of some lunch, I headed home. Research complete. The result? Ogier's right, it's much harder to drive on a road covered with lots of loose stones. It's also a whole heap more fun, which is perhaps an argument worth deploying next time he's on the warpath.

"Indeed, champ, you might well have lost a second per kilometre on that stage... but who had the most fun?"

Maybe not.

AUTOSPORT's research begins...

But that does bring me rather neatly to the subject of Ogier and running order. It was the hottest of piping hot potatoes in Sardinia and could be so in Finland and almost certainly Australia. And, no doubt, the Frenchman will be quick to point to the injustice of somebody of his standing having to sweep clean the road for those chasing him.

And he's quite right to complain. Why should he do that? He's the world champion. And if anybody wants to stop him being world champion they should drive faster, brake later and be braver than him. They shouldn't do it by asking the FIA to handicap Ogier by forcing him to drive in the worst of the conditions. What kind of sport is that?

I'm a huge fan of Ogier's attitude. For me, he's absolutely right. He's not interested in anything but winning and that kind of single-minded ruthless approach has to be admired. And desired.

But what about the good of the sport?

Who cares? Not his problem. He's only in it to win it; if others are worried about the effect of complete domination then they will have to win more rallies. Simple.

The perfect start order scenario for Ogier would be reversed championship positions from the first stage to the last. Either that or a return to qualifying, where he was usually always fastest and could chose to run at the back of the lead pack.

Unless it's wet gravel, when he wants to be at the front. Or asphalt, he wants to be first on the road there as well. In short, does he want everything and is prepared to give nothing? Yes.

As dominant championship leader, Ogier has to do a lot of road sweeping © McKlein

And your point is? I could (and usually do) reel off a load of other players, athletes and drivers from all sorts of sport who have shown equal amounts of self-belief, steel and determination to care not a jot about anything but their own success. John McEnroe, Sean Fitzpatrick and Ayrton Senna I salute you too.

But, here's the thing: this sport of ours is suffering right now. And something has to be done.

I know, I know, that's not your problem, Seb. But, the culture we live in is all about entertainment. And, for some ridiculous reason, watching you and your mates barrelling between the trees risking life and limb at 100mph isn't entertainment enough. Some might say that the entertainment's not being produced and packaged in the right way, but that particular hot potato's going to have to stay in the oven a wee while longer...

Something has to give here. And, if current speculation is right, the thing that's going to have to give is you, Seb. Current thinking in some parts is that next year will run with all three days in championship order. That means three days of cleaning, sweeping and handing a tenth of second and more to every one of those following in your dust.

But, you can do it: it's called winning tough. It's called showing them you're a true champion. And when you do do it, you'll complete the perfect two-fingered salute to those in positions of power who impose these regulations in an effort to paper over the cracks and pretend that everything is fine and dandy on planet WRC.

Why bother making the WRC attractive to global carmakers and worldwide broadcasters when you can fiddle the rules and slow the fast guy down?

Burns had to tackle running first on the road too © LAT

What I've constructed is the perfect-world argument. In reality, Ogier's the fastest driver in the fastest car with the wealthiest team - sugar-coating his lot with the perfect place on the road is, perhaps, pandering to him.

As so many of our conversations do, my most recent chat with WRC Commission vice-president Robert Reid resulted in us walking down the lane labelled memory, this time to a place called Te Papatapu, just south of Raglan, North Island, New Zealand. It was 2001.

Reid was co-driving, of course, for Richard Burns. The Subaru pair were locked into a scrap with Marcus Gronholm and neither wanted to run at the front of the field on the second day. Subaru got the numbers right, Peugeot got them horribly wrong; tactical genius complementing a driving God.

RB and Reidy won NZ. And then won the championship. Two years later, the running order rule was the same as today: championship order for day one then rally leaders reversed. Burns led the championship from round three to round 11 and, yes, he grumbled every now and then about the realities of life at the front, but largely, he just got on with it. And, had illness not stepped in and moved him on to a greater race, he would probably have taken a second title.

"That was Richard's approach," says Reid. "The rules were there, they were set. So you might as well get on and make the best of them; work out a way to make them work for you.

"Richard didn't really see the point in moaning about them, he kind of felt that if you weren't happy with the rules, what was the point in doing it?"

There's nothing new about current running order debate. But the stakes have never been higher for the sport and the series.

It's quite clear Ogier's going to win this year's championship by some considerable margin. Question is whether he's prepared to give ground for the common good and take one for the team next year.