Rallying surely has to be one of the most intense and exciting forms of motorsport there is. The skill required to weave one of those high-performance machines between trees, rocks, and everything in between at such high speeds is truly something to behold. Whilst there is no wheel to wheel racing involved in rallying, the race against the clock is always enthralling. Over the years, there have been some phenomenal rally drivers, such as Michelle Mouton, Colin McRae, and Henri Toivonen, to name just a few. In modern times, one of the all-time greats has to be Sebastien Ogier.
Ogier has been a consistent championship winner in the World Rally Championship for many years, having made his debut in World Rally in 2008. Ogier has become the second most successful rally driver in WRC history with an astonishing seven world titles, with six in a row from 2013 to 2018. He is likely to win his eighth title in 2021, which is also likely to be the final year in which he competes in the WRC full time as he heads towards retirement. This is the remarkable career of a rally legend.
Early Career
Whilst there are junior rally ranks, we will be focussing purely on Ogier’s WRC career at the top level. Ogier’s 2008 season was spent in the Junior World Rally Championship series, in which he claimed that year's world title. The following year saw him step up full-time to the WRC, following a win in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge at the Monte Carlo Rally in a Peugeot 207 S2000. For his WRC career, he would be placed in Citroën’s satellite WRC team and scored his first WRC podium at the Acropolis Rally that year. The world had already seen Ogier’s potential.
The 2010 season would be the one that saw Ogier win his first rallies. He was once again placed in the Citroën satellite team, its junior team in effect and his first win came in Rally de Portugal, winning that rally by a mere eight seconds from rally legend Sebastien Loeb. Ogier was eventually moved up to the factory Citroën team near the end of 2010, where he took another victory in Japan after beating Petter Solberg. The following year of 2011 would be his last in Citroën colors for some time thanks to a tense relationship with Citroën management, and a strained relationship with teammate Loeb. Ogier finished 2011 in third place with five wins.
The Volkswagen Years
Ogier was discharged from Citroën but signed up with Volkswagen for 2012 onwards. Ogier would contest the 2012 season in a Škoda Fabia S2000 whilst the Polo R WRC was being prepped for the 2013 season. Once he got into the VW Polo, however, it seemed that absolutely nobody would be able to stop Ogier. His first season in the car saw him rack up 9 wins and 11 podiums, and a record 290 points in the championship. Ogier won Rally Monte Carlo again in 2014 which set up his title defense, doing so once again with co-driver Julien Ingrassia.
Ogier won the titles for VW once again in 2015 and 2016, but the brand announced they would leave the WRC following the end of the 2016 season. This, remarkably, left Ogier without a driver for 2017 and the option of a relatively early retirement was very much on the table for the Frenchman. However, M-Sport Ford, ran by Malcolm Wilson, came to the rescue. Now in a privateer team, Ogier would take control of the Ford Fiesta WRC for the next two seasons, with 2017 introducing faster and more aggressive cars into the championship that harked back to the Group B rally era.
M-Sport To Citroën
Ogier took a stunning debut win for M-Sport in Monte Carlo, but the next two titles were slightly tougher than his first ones. The likes of Thierry Neuville and Ott Tanak providing stiff competition. But Ogier’s consistency saw him win yet another title. In 2018, he once again won the title for M-Sport, although Tanak, his teammate, made things very difficult for the Frenchman as the season wore on. Neuville in the Hyundai also put up a spectacular fight against Ogier, this season proving to be his most intense and grueling yet, but Ogier and Ingrassia defended their crown once again.
Ogier returned to Citroën in 2019, but things didn’t go so well. Whilst Ogier won again in Monte Carlo, the development of the C3 WRC was slow, and the car was clearly behind rivals Toyota and Hyundai. Plus, Ogier was struggling again with Citroën’s management. Ogier soon announced he would leave Citroën after just one year, with Citroën incredibly then announcing they were leaving the WRC as Ogier “left them no choice”. Retirement once again loomed, but newly crowned champion Tanak was leaving Toyota for Hyundai. This paved the way for Ogier to head to the Japanese company.
Final Two Seasons
Ogier once again won the world title in the Covid-19 impacted 2020 WRC season, after a sensational last round battle with title rival Elfyn Evans. Evans, Ogier’s Toyota teammate, had been the championship leader for most of the year but skidded off on ice at the last event in Rally Monza, before sportingly waving his teammate down as he came through that section to stop Ogier from suffering the same fate. With just four rounds to go, Ogier is currently leading the 2021 WRC season at the time of writing. In what is looking highly likely to be his final season in the WRC, Sebastien Ogier will probably retire at the very top of his game. Although, don't rule out him staying on in 2022 just in case. There can be no more fitting a way to end a career, for a man so used to the highest levels of success.
Sources: GT Spirit, Citroen, WRC, Wikipedia, Autosport, AutoEvolution, AUSmotive, FIA