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  1. #241
    Senior Member Mirek's Avatar
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    Can some moderator please delete all that bullshit from the last page or so?
    Stupid is as stupid does. Forrest Gump

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  3. #242
    Senior Member EstWRC's Avatar
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    last page? the whole thread please
    #8 Ott Tänak - Martin Järveoja #8
    - World Rally Champions 2019 -

  4. #243
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    Can't we all just agree that Loeb is pretty fking good and forget this thread

  5. #244
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    Rarely a nine-time world champion will be so much in the shadows. Daniel Elena, co-driver of Sébastien Loeb for twenty years, built alongside the Alsatian pilot an XXL record. The Monegasque has magnified this role unrecognized and yet decisive rally. But the story of "Danos" is first of all that of a total symbiosis with the one of which he is so close, in the car as well as outside.
    It's Tuesday, it's Great Stories. Our series invites you to immerse yourself in the crazy history of sport, between pages of legends, buried memories and unknown stories. Always at the height of men. After the improbable heroes, miraculas and curses, new theme in September-October devoted to the best supporting roles of the sport. It's already time for the sixth and final round, which honors the co-driver the most successful of all time ...

    Daniel Elena grew up in Sainte-Dévote. Evocative name if any. Sainte-Dévote, it is a district of Monaco (the ravine of Sainte-Dévote, to be precise), but also of the very first corner, on the right, of the Monegasque circuit. Elena's dual duality lives here, in this district of the most famous Principality of the planet, where the millionaires abound and where the most famous pilots of the world tumble, once a year, in the spring. The young Daniel pushed among the first and dreamed of belonging one day to the brotherhood of the latter. But he was not a millionaire and did not become a pilot. Next, always. That will be his story.

    His father was not a prince, nor even a banker or real estate mogul. He was a croupier in one of the casinos in the city. Her mother was a housekeeper at home. A modest environment as there are so many, with the peculiarity of the opulent Monegasque context. In his autobiography, My Policy, Sébastien Loeb says of him: "Since I know him, I have understood that misery is no less painful in the sun.People also live in the Principality."

    But Monaco is also the Formula 1 Grand Prix in May and the Monte Carlo Rally in January. Two monuments of motorsport that will quickly fascinate the teenager Elena in the 80s. "It helps to have the passion of the sport self," he smiles.

    "When I was a kid," he told us, "I see myself listening to the Turini stages with my transistor, and my radio, I'm not 70, either!" Everything started there for him. In the shadow of palaces and cars, he has fed a dream, integrate the world of motorsport, and an ambition: that of a form of success and ease that invaded his daily life without crossing the threshold of his home .

    Auto sport at all costs
    Daniel Elena quickly leaves school aside. He only thinks of cars. Of his passion, he wants to do his job. Not easy in a closed environment, where the sesame is often, more than the talent, the book of check. But he is ready for anything. "When I was at school one day, at the age of 14, I think, I told my parents that I would live in motorsport, I did not know if it would be a pilot, a co-pilot or even mechanic, I did not care, I just wanted to be part of this world. " Already, at the time, the rally attracts more than F1. "The circuit has a monotonous side," he says, "we go around in circles, we always see them pass at the same place at the same speed, while rally is more spectacular." Then my brother was rallying ... "

    Like everyone else, he first considers himself a pilot, before quickly understanding that it would not be for him. "I have not had any training," continues Elena, "I have not had the chance to have parents who love motorsports, I have never done karting, etc." Lucid, he also says, "I made a co-pilot because I was a bad pilot." But he assures that he has never harbored the slightest regret. "I have never mourned my career as a driver because I never really wanted to be, basically, I'm just as happy as a co-driver. financial means and then I had the chance to meet Sebastien. "

    Here we are. Sébastien Loeb, the meeting that will change his life and allow him to reach summits that alone he would never have achieved. Their union is a happy combination of circumstances. In the right timing. At the end of 1997, in "promotion formula", Daniel Elena finds himself without a pilot. Hervé Bernard, with whom he has teamed up, has decided not to return. Loeb also lost his half after the abrupt withdrawal of his co-driver, Christophe Schneider. Elena is 25 years old. Loeb 23. "We were opponents in the race but we had sympathized all year during the reconnaissance, recalls the Monegasque.The current was passed right away, that's how we decided to leave together."

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  7. #245
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    The cat Loeb on the head
    It's a love at first sight, human and professional, that will make this couple one of the greatest success story in the history of motorsport. "But before being a nine-time world champion, Elena reminds us, we've had galleys, we've spent stages together." From the Kit Car Trophy to the French Championship, the duo makes its ranges. Their first three common years, far from their future glory, are placed under the sign of the trouble. At the time, every penny counts. To limit the expenses due to round trips between Monaco and Oberhoffen-sur-Moder, Daniel Elena settled for six months in Alsace in 1999. He sleeps on the couch, with the Loeb cat on his head. It is during this period that he makes the other meeting of his life, that of his future wife, Céline. They will get married in 2001. Sebastien, of course, will be Daniel's witness.

    On the car and off, Loeb and Elena seem to complement each other to perfection. The southern bon vivant, chatterer, laughter, balances taciturn Alsatian. "I am hot water, it is cold water and to take a good shower, it is necessary to arrive at the right temperature", summarizes Elena with this metaphor that he had to use a few hundred times for twenty years to describe their duo. "My side jovial speed, very Latin, was good with his Alsatian side more reserved.It's cliché but it's true, even if it's a bit of a facet at Seb.When we really know ... he would be almost as crazy as I. But yes, he manages to stop me, I get to the booster. "

    In competition, the pair also borders on the perfect puzzle. Very quickly, Daniel is blown away by the pilot Loeb. He understands that he has chosen the right horse. After two decades of cohabitation, he is still admiring:

    "He's a gifted pilot who's in control of his brain, he's not looking for the last tenth, he's never going beyond the limit of what he's able to do, he's very knowledgeable and I think his past as a gymnast has helped him at that level, and everything that has an engine, he's stealing instantly, it's crazy, he won everything in the rally, when he did some private testing in F1 he was going fast. a motorcycle, he does what he wants, put a helicopter in his hands and he will use it in five minutes.When it comes to flying, he knows how to do.
    "Daniel, he was biting the same bullshit as usual"
    If Loeb is the ultimate driver, Elena is the perfect co-driver. The one who agrees not to have his own destiny in his hands in the car. It looks like nothing, but it's not so simple. He will flourish in this role. "Generally speaking," says Loeb of his double in "My line of conduct, nothing scares him, whereas I am not really comfortable in situations that I do not control."

    And Loeb to tell this anecdote: together, they performed a few years ago a baptism of parachute jump. The Alsatian was mortified before jumping from the plane to four thousand meters above sea level. Nothing to do with fear of emptiness. No, what worried Loeb was having to depend on someone, in this case his monitor, to whom he was harnessed. He was undergoing the event: "When the door opened, I really freaked out, Daniel, he had the same bullshit as usual, a smile on his lips." He threw himself into the void as if nothing was there. "

    It's the same in rally as in parachute. Monitor or pilot, he relies on the other. Without fear. The rally is a sport at risk, and it is still special to exercise it without being able to control 100% of the potential danger. But it is an indispensable prerequisite. "If a minimum of fear settles, slip Daniel Elena, there will be a micro hesitation." Who says hesitation says error, which says error says road exit. Co-driver, Loeb, though naturally drunk by speed, would have been the type to shout "brake! Brakes!" in the left bucket. He admits it, he could never have accommodated this function: "In any circumstance, I want to control the situation." These two were really good.

    After three seasons of learning and development, Sébastien Loeb is crowned world junior champion in 2001. That same year, driving a Citroën Xsara, he won the first race in his first race in the WRC during the rally. from Sanremo, behind Gilles Panizzi, then untouchable on asphalt. The herringbone brand knows that it holds a real nugget and, no doubt, a future world champion. The Loeb machine is launched, it will not stop.

    The ejection seat
    For Daniel Elena, everything is not so simple. For a long time, he will have to convince. For a long time, he will be on a seat more or less ejectable. He will have to wait for the first world championship titles to become almost untouchable. In 1998, at the end of their first joint campaign, Dominique Heintz and Rémi Mammosser, the patrons and chaperones of Loeb, wanted to dismiss Elena. In the spring of 1999, Loeb will also be joined by a new co-driver for a race, but will insist on continuing with Elena.

    Later, in 2003, Guy Fréquelin, the big boss of Citröen Sports, who does not really have the right one, will also try to get rid of it after the biggest pellet of the career of Monegasque. In Turkey, Elena's misdirection misplaced Loeb's Xsara in the wild: gasoline failure and abandonment, in the midst of a world title fight. "Frequelin was red with anger and at the time, I was also very angry with Daniel," says Loeb, "but I defended him with the boss, who was determined to release him."

  8. #246
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    If every blunder, and he has committed some ("I was the pilot who used the best handbrake in the pins to catch Daniel's bullshit on the road course," according to Loeb), placed him on the hot seat is that Daniel Elena has long paid his image dilettante. Many considered him a wanker and it took him a long time to get rid of this pan very largely unjustified. "Behind his air I do not care, he hides a strength of character quite impressive," notes Loeb. The entertainer Elena was more than the king's madman. He was the king next to the king.

    His discreet but strong personality will allow him to cope with the initial defiance of decision makers, and in front of the horde of co-pilot predators ready to steal his place, so good, alongside the French driver. Daniel Elena knows he can thank Loeb, who never let go. If the Alsatian had not shown him an unshakable confidence in their early years, he would have been forced to go elsewhere. But never will the duo be dissociated. The following belongs to History. The first world title, in 2004, and the eight others that followed. Nine world crowns for the greatest rider in history. And for the greatest co-pilot?

    Elena, it's Karajan
    It was generally felt that Daniel Elena had a gift for copiloting. Of course, in the car, the key element is Loeb. The latter had issued, a few years ago in L'Equipe, this judgment that may seem severe but is fair: "With a serious co-driver, but of average level, I win races.If you put Daniel, nine times world champion, with an average driver, he does not win, it's cruel, but the performance comes from the driver, not his teammate. "

    But if Loeb is irreplaceable, Elena is still valuable. Not far from being indispensable. Especially in his way, he revolutionized his profession. First by creating with Loeb his own system of notes: concise but sharp and ultra-precise, more probably than in the system used by Anglo-Saxons and Nordics.

    These notes are now crucial with the limitation of recognitions, while they were almost unlimited until the 90s. In the Loeb-Elena system, the value announced corresponds to the angle of the turn. The lower the value, the slower the turn. Conversely, the higher the value, the faster the turn. Many have been inspired since, starting with Sébastien Ogier and his co-driver, Julien Ingrassia.

    Then there is the Elena style, which does not read the notes, but declaims them. The sings, almost. His musicality, which is his own, plays a lot in the driving of Sebastien Loeb, which is as much a melody as the text. "I could almost drive with my eyes closed, just at the sound of Daniel's voice," said Loeb one day. "Danos" is defined as a "conductor". In the car, Karajan, it's him. "I'm his eyes, he's my hands," he tells me, "I'm on the baton, the co-pilot is going to give the tempo, the rhythm in relation to the notes." The pilot plays the music and together we try to deliver the most beautiful symphony possible, I am the conductor, Seb is the maestro. "

  9. #247
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    If every blunder, and he has committed some ("I was the pilot who used the best handbrake in the pins to catch Daniel's bullshit on the road course," according to Loeb), placed him on the hot seat is that Daniel Elena has long paid his image dilettante. Many considered him a wanker and it took him a long time to get rid of this pan very largely unjustified. "Behind his air I do not care, he hides a strength of character quite impressive," notes Loeb. The entertainer Elena was more than the king's madman. He was the king next to the king.

    His discreet but strong personality will allow him to cope with the initial defiance of decision makers, and in front of the horde of co-pilot predators ready to steal his place, so good, alongside the French driver. Daniel Elena knows he can thank Loeb, who never let go. If the Alsatian had not shown him an unshakable confidence in their early years, he would have been forced to go elsewhere. But never will the duo be dissociated. The following belongs to History. The first world title, in 2004, and the eight others that followed. Nine world crowns for the greatest rider in history. And for the greatest co-pilot?

    Elena, it's Karajan
    It was generally felt that Daniel Elena had a gift for copiloting. Of course, in the car, the key element is Loeb. The latter had issued, a few years ago in L'Equipe, this judgment that may seem severe but is fair: "With a serious co-driver, but of average level, I win races.If you put Daniel, nine times world champion, with an average driver, he does not win, it's cruel, but the performance comes from the driver, not his teammate. "

    But if Loeb is irreplaceable, Elena is still valuable. Not far from being indispensable. Especially in his way, he revolutionized his profession. First by creating with Loeb his own system of notes: concise but sharp and ultra-precise, more probably than in the system used by Anglo-Saxons and Nordics.

    These notes are now crucial with the limitation of recognitions, while they were almost unlimited until the 90s. In the Loeb-Elena system, the value announced corresponds to the angle of the turn. The lower the value, the slower the turn. Conversely, the higher the value, the faster the turn. Many have been inspired since, starting with Sébastien Ogier and his co-driver, Julien Ingrassia.

    Then there is the Elena style, which does not read the notes, but declaims them. The sings, almost. His musicality, which is his own, plays a lot in the driving of Sebastien Loeb, which is as much a melody as the text. "I could almost drive with my eyes closed, just at the sound of Daniel's voice," said Loeb one day. "Danos" is defined as a "conductor". In the car, Karajan, it's him. "I'm his eyes, he's my hands," he tells me, "I'm on the baton, the co-pilot is going to give the tempo, the rhythm in relation to the notes." The pilot plays the music and together we try to deliver the most beautiful symphony possible, I am the conductor, Seb is the maestro. "

    250 days together in 3m²
    But the greatest strength of the "couple" Loeb-Elena is its extraordinary alchemy, which can not be explained. Loeb is a huge pilot. Elena a great copilot. But if the first has never imagined to ride with another pair, it is mostly for a question of affinities. They eventually became inseparable and their complicity in the race, extended by their friendship outside the car, weighed positively on their performance.

    "Our story is that of a professional adventure but also a story of friendship in life, ensures the Southern copilot.We can always succeed in the car without strong personal affinities, with a pilot who jumps from a co-driver to the other, but I think that trust in the car sometimes helps to get the last few seconds and to avoid some mistakes too. "

    Daniel Elena would not have imagined to live with a guy with whom he had nothing to share. "At the big time, we spent the equivalent of 250 days together in 3m².It is interesting to get along, he blows, hilarious.It is a special link.There are galleys, happiness , the joys and the best is to share these emotions with someone, someone who is close to you, who knows why we were in the galley, why we came out. is great."

    Elena and Loeb shared more than just wins and titles. Teammates, friends, and even neighbors since they settled five minutes from each other in Switzerland, near Lausanne, the "big" and the "dwarf", as they are sometimes called, have not dissociated work and friendship. "In twenty years, there has never been weariness in our couple, swear Monegasque.We speak of everything, of nothing, of our private lives.We have the same friends, we see ourselves outside, our women are friends, our girls are friends, when we're in the car, it's the bonus, because that's our passion. " "Danos" admits "some shouting", widely spaced and always without consequences: "We rarely argue because when we have something to say, we said it before it goes up in pressure."
    Last edited by dimviii; 30th October 2018 at 18:26.

  10. #248
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    "I did not play sports to be famous"
    For Sébastien Loeb too, Daniel Elena is more than a co-driver. In his autobiography, the nine-time world champion has strong words to sum up their relationship:

    "We shared everything: the victories, the bickering, the doubts, the affliction, the hope, the futile things like the unfathomable sorrows or the great joys of our lives." Daniel was by my side at the funeral of daddy and then of mother He saw my daughter grow up, side by side, we became adults, then fathers. "
    Their friendship puts them on an equal footing that the rally has never fully offered them. Neither financially (the pilot wins on average four to five times more than his co-pilot) nor in terms of exposure. At the height of its splendor, Loeb "could not do ten meters without being stopped for an autograph or a photo, whether at the car show, at the airport or at the supermarket," said Elena, who never had this problem.

    When asked if he took shade from the shadows, the jovial Southerner almost annoyed. "Frankly, I do not give a damn," he says, "for the simple reason that I'm lucky enough to live off my passion, it's not given to everyone. the crate, I take a huge pleasure, I'm happy Why have frustrations? I did not play sports to be famous and I am someone hyper simple.

    The most successful co-driver of all time also does not regret having "suffered" the choices of his double, as when he decided to leave the WRC at the end of 2012. It is his condition that wanted it. "We discussed it together and I respected his decision." Episodically, we saw the two men in WRC for a few luxury races, like this weekend in Catalonia, where they masterfully won their 79th joint victory. He also followed him on the Dakar for three years. "A great adventure, but a lot of galleys and then it hurts the ass," he laughs in reference to his coccyx injury that forced the duo to abandon in 2018.

    Pétanque and co-driving school
    At 46 (he celebrated them last week on the rally of Catalonia), his future is in dotted line. For the first time in a long time, Sébastien Loeb lacks short-term plans after Peugeot Sport's withdrawal from rallycross. By definition, Elena too, and we feel almost worried: "Our future? It's very difficult to say at the moment. It's the blur. We have to see what Seb wants to do."

    But Daniel Elena does not miss occupations. He drives a little, for fun, amateurs. Play a lot of pétanque, his other big passion. He built his own company a few years ago, and is working on a project that is close to his heart, the co-pilot school he has just launched. "I learned on the job and it still learns a lot on the job, but I created this school to prevent young people from committing the mistakes I made," he says.

    Today, he wants to transmit, to enhance his profession. His art, almost. Daniel the laughter always took seriously the way his work was considered, and especially as it was not always. When the FIA ​​had the co-driver's name removed from WRC cars in the 2000s, it was he who went to coal. He will eventually convince Jean Todt, then become boss of the FIA, to put it next to that of the driver.

    His co-pilot career fades as Sébastien Loeb's projects dwindle. He could turn to someone else. But there is no question. True to what he had promised himself, he refused all offers from another pilot. For the 2019 Dakar, Elena had a proposal to be co-pilot on an official Toyota. "I refused because, as I have always said, I remain faithful to Seb". And if his friend needs him anywhere, for anything, he'll know where to find him: "if one day he wants to leave, on the Dakar, in the WRC or elsewhere, I'll be there. . "

    https://www.eurosport.fr/wrc/grands-...74/story.shtml

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  12. #249
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    thanks dimvii

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  14. #250
    Senior Member Rally Power's Avatar
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    https://www.rallye-sport.fr/loeb-en-prive-au-dakar/

    More info on Loeb/Elena Dakar entry: private project supported by Red Bull and Bardahl and run by PHSport, using a 2017 3008, as last year Evo isn’t allowed by the regs any more. Rallyesport guys also mentioning that the last Dakar private win is from Schlesser, back in 2000; another record for Loeb to beat?
    Rally addict since 1982

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