Ogier's step to a Loeb-like legacy

Sebastien Ogier had slept well. His body was entirely acclimatised to east-coast Australia's time zone, his mind well adjusted to waking up to World Rally Championship-winning days.

Coffs Harbour last Sunday was nothing new for Ogier. He's had two years to get used to standing on top of the world.

"You never forget the first one," he told AUTOSPORT. "You work so hard, it means everything. Then number two is confirmation that you didn't get lucky the first time around. This one is a nice continuation..."

Ogier hasn't put a foot wrong so far this year and his objective now is the perfect, mistake-free season. And then he wants to see how much more he has to give.

"I don't know if I am at the top yet," he said. "I want to keep pushing, keep pushing for more and keep getting better."

How much better? Three times better? He has three titles; three times three would be... nine. Know of anybody with nine titles?

Ogier has long since stopped being bugged by Loeb comparisons. He's his own man in his own generation.

Let's humour him for a while, though, shall we?

Loeb and Ogier have plenty in common, statistically © McKlein

Looking at the statistics, the career progression for the two Sebastiens is remarkably similar.

Loeb was a couple of years older than Ogier when he made his WRC debut, aged 26. The Alsatian's first win came on his 22nd start in the championship, Ogier's arrived on rally number 24.

Loeb took his maiden world title in Corsica, 2004, his 52nd world rally. Now, take out the 12 rallies Ogier spent in a Skoda Fabia S2000 in 2012 - Volkswagen's testing year - and he would have worn the crown after 57 starts (as it was, it came on 69).

If Ogier can maintain his current standard, it will take something and somebody very special to shift him.

Ogier's team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala has competed against both. The question of who is the tougher combatant vexes the Finn. Not one for a one-liner, he gives it some thought. Then a bit more.

The response follows a significant amount of hand-wringing and is delivered in trademark considered and qualified fashion.

"I think," says Jari-Matti, "the difference is that Loeb was always calculating a little bit more. For example, if he knew he didn't need to win the stage or win the rally he took this option.

"Loeb went the clever way. Ogier, he wants to win every stage and every rally. He doesn't go for the calculation. He goes for the win. Every time.

"I think Ogier has more passion to win, so I would say he is harder to beat than Loeb - but I can't really compare so easily, because it was different when we were fighting with Loeb. We were at a different level as a driver, but there were years when they were ahead of us, like 2010: we couldn't challenge the Citroen.

"At the moment, I feel that Ogier can be a little bit stronger than Loeb."

Latvala reckons Ogier could be stronger than Loeb © McKlein

At the moment, Ogier is some distance stronger than everybody. Title number three and the way it was clinched highlights that the fire burns brighter than ever.

Twelve months ago, faced with the running order regulation change he vehemently opposed, Ogier was isolated, increasingly unpopular and pretty unhappy in his professional life.

The inner strength of this mountain man allied to the love and support of his new wife brought him through that most difficult period.

And this season is testament to just how strong that time has made him.

Last Sunday that strength shone through. The title was important, but Sunday brought an opportunity to finish an incredible job he'd started two days earlier. Last Sunday was about being the best. And being the boss.

He let everybody else talk about him joining that elite group of Sebastien Loeb, Juha Kankkunen and Tommi Makinen, men who had won at least three world titles.

Ogier's mind was elsewhere. For him, Sunday's big number was 31.

Thirty-one would be the number of career wins, if he could hold the lead for the final Rally Australia day.

Of course he could. Once he'd ridden the wave...

As you can imagine, surfing's huge in Australia. But this part of the world's not really known for big wave riding. That's where the stakes, along with the breakers, are higher. The odds for success slashed. The risks bigger. Way bigger.

VW celebrates title number three for Ogier © XPB

Ogier took on the season's biggest wave when he set out at the front of the field in New South Wales last week.

At the risk of stretching the surfing analogy a little further, Motorsport News columnist Jerry Williams pursed real insight into what Ogier was facing.

Jerry and I donned our wetsuits and paddled out in search of death on a stick. With a Mitsubishi Mirage for a surfboard, we attacked all 31.5 miles of the Nambucca stage.

Now, I'm sure hopping up on a board and cresting a breaking, 30-foot wave must get the pulse racing, but for true fear try the super-narrow, shockingly steep and rutted run up the goat track in the middle of Rally Australia's longest stage.

Unaware of what was coming, we weren't really firing on all three cylinders and the speed soon slowed as the gradient ramped. In fading light, shrouded by our own dust, for a terrible moment, I thought we were going to start sliding backwards down the hill and into the trees.

We made it. Just.

I stopped at the top of the hill, taking time to mop my brow and dry my hands. Ready to go again, I noticed a snake at the side of the road. Excellent. The time had come to go.

The goat track was actually nothing. The wave-riding analogy really played out in the open, where this monster stage cut loose from the technical, twisty, forested sections and headed for the rolling countryside. The road was stunning: quick and completed with crests and cambers that inspired you to chuck it in and have a go.

AUTOSPORT's Evans tackled the waves of Nambucca...

Invariably, though, as you were on the slight incline towards one of the many crests, there was something approaching a line in the loose gravel. Everyday traffic - what little there was - under acceleration up the hills would naturally move the stones aside. By no means was grip there in abundance, but there was something.

Up and over the crest and sweeping downhill into the next long corner, there was... absolutely nothing. Except for full gravel completely covering any hint of a line. The dash lit up like a Christmas tree as Japanese technology tried to make sense of this Mirage. Jerry and I were passengers, hurtling down the big wave, riotously out of control and hoping the handbrake might help.

Time after time, I've heard the drivers talking about gravel stages being as slippery as ice. Last week, I truly got it.

Running first on the road was rolling the dice. Running first on the road with any hope of winning was Russian roulette.

Ogier had been full of third title frivolity in the days leading up to Rally Australia, but all of that went out of the window on day one, when the sheer size of the wave he was looking to ride began to build.

Ogier's mood was dark for much of Friday. He was trying. He was pushing like hell and, in all honesty, risking more than any other driver in the rally. The reward? Eighth.

Title talk was of little interest to him. There was something standing between him and a 31st world rally win. All he was interested in, now, was rising above everything and everybody else to produce another masterful performance.

...before Ogier did the same © XPB

Saturday was marginally less difficult, with Stephane Lefebvre running ahead of him. Stepping in for the injured Mads Ostberg for Citroen, the reigning Junior World Rally Champion had clattered the DS 3's suspension on a rock, forcing him out of Friday and into first on the road on day two.

But this was Lefebvre's debut on gravel in a World Rally Car. His line helped a little, but it wasn't perfect. It didn't matter. Ogier was.

From Saturday lunchtime onwards, he was unbeatable. Running further down the field on Sunday, he destroyed everybody.

Granted, the VW-decorated board is better than anything else at the moment, but the Gap man rode the wave beautifully. On Sunday, he came out the tube with a big carve, hand dragging in the water. Class. Pure class.

Thirty-one made three.

"People who know motorsport," Ogier said quietly after the fuss and the fanfare had died down, "will know what we did on this rally. I'm proud of this one."

That pride had nothing to do with the arrival of a third world title, the pride came from the raw competition. It would have been easy for Ogier to settle for second down under and take his title at a canter on French soil in Corsica. He's not made that way. He's a fighter. And a winner.

For surfers, the perfect wave's always on the horizon. It's the pursuit of it that makes them who they are. It's the same for Ogier. He might come close to the perfect season this year, but for champions like him there's always something even better just around the corner.

Question is: will he stick around long enough to look around another seven corners? Probably not, but the bar will be unreasonably high by the time he's done.