The Frenchman Ogier has already won eight world rally championships during his career, and only his compatriot Sebastien Loeb has more titles. Loeb celebrated as many as nine world championships during his career.
Few remember that Ogier’s career in the top tier of the World Rally Championship didn’t begin so promisingly.
Ogier rose from the WRC’s junior category to the main class in 2009. The French driver’s talent was already well known at the time, but the season didn’t start well for him.
Ogier had won the junior championship in 2008, and he was hired for the following season to drive in the main category with Citroën’s C4 WRC car. Ogier was originally promised only the first half of the season. His future beyond that was completely uncertain.
However, Citroën’s then-French team principal Olivier Quesnel decided to extend Ogier’s contract through to the end of the season — even though Ogier and his co-driver Julien Ingrassia had failed to score points in three of the first five rallies of the season.
“The difference between the junior class and the WRC was enormous,” Ogier recalled in the Undercut podcast, which focuses on Formula 1.
“We moved from a two-wheel drive car to the fastest rally car of the time. Adapting couldn’t happen instantly,” Ogier continued.
“After a few rallies we showed that we had the pace, but putting together an entire error-free rally was still difficult,” Ogier remembered of the early days of his career.
The second half of the season went better, and Ogier continued in the WRC’s top tier also in the 2010 season. He was promoted to Citroën’s first team, and at the 2010 Rally Portugal the Frenchman celebrated his first ever victory in the top category.
Ogier’s situation can be compared to that of F1 driver Liam Lawson. The young rookie was given only two races this season with Red Bull’s F1 parent team before he was already dropped. He was replaced by the Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda.
But Olivier Quesnel decided to give Ogier another chance. Instead of being sacked, Ogier has continued his successful rallying career all the way to the present day and has risen to the ranks of the sport’s legends. Ogier will next be seen at the starting line of Rally Islas Canarias at the end of April.
