Sébastien Loeb

The most successful rally driver of all time

- James Elliott

I COME FROM the Alsace region of France with no connection to cars or racing whatsoever. My mother Ingrid was a maths teacher and my father Guy was a gymnastics coach - my early life was spent doing gymnastics [he was multiple regional champion], specialising in floor and the high bar. Then I got a moped and my passion for gymnastics waned as I raced around on that with my friends, but my only goal was to get my driving licence. I still do gymnastics maybe once every ten years; a few years ago I went to the gym with my daughter and was really proud I could still do a double backflip. The next day I really suffered!

With the help of my grandmother, I bought my first car, a Renault 5 GT Turbo, when I was 18. My passion was for driving much more than for cars and I would spend hours in a field with two corners just practising over and over until I got them perfect. I didn't have the goal or the money to go racing, I was just challenging myself.

At that point my parents sent me to work in a factory in the holidays to show me that if I didn’t go to school that’s where I might end up. Maybe I was not that bright because all I thought was ‘but if I work here I can put fuel in my car and maybe get some tyres and I don’t need more than that’. I did a lot of manual jobs, including installing windows in Germany, before training as an electrician in France - it was not my passion at all but I could put even more fuel in my car!