Quote Originally Posted by Joestlaachmkr View Post
I dont find Loeb impressive in either WTCC or in Rallycross RX, And you can easily see that he is not at good racing in traffic. Yes Loeb finished in third place one point behind Muller in WTCC 2015 but he also quite a lot of mistakes during his sejour in the WTCC, And you could see that he struggled while racing in traffic. His second place at Le Mans in 2006 was pretty damn impressive, And to be honest i think Loeb would have performed better if he had taken a career at endurance racing instead of touring cars or rallycross. Loeb is without a doubt one of the all time greats in motorsport, But i would say that he had an easy competition in the WRC between 2004-2012, And during this period Citroen was like what Ferrari was in F1 in the early 2000s.
He struggles to drive in the traffic because he's a rally driver. And nonetheless, he managed to be on pace with Yvan Muller. But even if he would have been much worse, in both touring car racing and rallycross, how does that influence how good of a RALLY driver he is?
About the easy competition, I do not agree. Gronholm was a great driver, Solberg as well. Hirvonen in his prime was very good also thanks to his consistency, and let's not forget McRae, Sainz and in part Makinen who yes, were in the last years of their careers, but they were still fast as it was proven in the final standings of those years. Much more competition than Ogier had in last years, for example.
Also that Citroen was like Ferrari, I do not agree. In 2004 and 2005 it was the best car but not by a great margin, where was Duval with his speed (when he wasn't crashing)? Then in 2006 he won, still using the old Xsara against the new Focus, even after skipping 4 rounds. In 2007, 2008 and in part 2009, the Focus wasn't inferior to the C4, at least not by a great margin. I'd say only 2009 and 2010 were "easy" titles to win, and even in 2009 Hirvonen fought until the last round thanks to his consistency. And 2012 too, but because of others' faults, Hirvonen not being able to match Loeb's pace, while Latvala and Solberg literally mistook everything they could mistake in the works Fiestas.