http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... lenews_wsj
You Think You're a Good Driver?
By NICOLAS BRULLIARD
SALOU, Spain—Meet the best driver in the world.
Of course, the unofficial title will always be in question, but France's Sébastien Loeb, the world champion of rally, has a better claim to it than most.
Besides a record seven consecutive titles in the World Rally Championship, racing's preeminent multi-terrain circuit, the 36-year-old has excelled in various motorsports. He finished second at the 24 hours of Le Mans endurance race in 2006, and he bested most of the professional Formula 1 drivers that were present at a winter testing session in 2008 despite having little experience with an F1 car. He also has three victories in the Race of Champions, an annual event pitting the best rally, F1, endurance and Nascar drivers against one another in identical cars.
Mud, Mist and Hang Time
But it's the sport that Mr. Loeb dominates that gives a better measure of his talent.
It's one thing to drive a racecar really fast on a racetrack. It is a different thing altogether to drive a racecar really fast on an icy mountain road with trees on one side, a cliff on the other and large fauna occasionally standing in the middle. Rally's sinuous courses allow for plenty of last-second braking, vertiginous acceleration and liberal use of the handbrake in tight curves.
"I have the most fun in rally because of the variety of terrains," Mr. Loeb said. "Competing on a racetrack gets a bit tiresome after a while."
The typical rally season runs from February to November across continents and is made up of multi-day events. While some rally competitions use tarred roads, most take place on gravel, sand, mud or snow. Because most take place in natural environments, sometimes nature finds its way to the middle of the road.
Earlier this year, former F1 champion Kimi Raikkonen narrowly missed a moose at the Sweden Rally. Mr. Loeb couldn't avoid hitting a cow at the Rally of Argentina in 2005, but he went on to win the event anyway. The cow seemed fine, Mr. Loeb said. Norway's Petter Solberg, one of Mr. Loeb's fiercest rivals and the last man not named Loeb to win a world championship, wasn't so lucky at the Australia Rally in 2005. Neither was the kangaroo with which his car collided.
It's no surprise, then, that drivers from the ranks of F1, which just crowned its youngest champion in Sebastian Vettel, have yet to make a smooth transition to rally. Mr. Raikkonen in particular has struggled in his first season. He failed to score points at most of the events he entered, and at the rally held here recently, he crashed his car before the rally even started.
"Raikkonen's switch to rally is a huge boost to the championship," said Gérard Bridier, founder of a rally magazine. "Formula 1 being the self-proclaimed king of motorsports, people thought that an F1 champion would be able to dominate any other discipline. Raikkonen proved it's just not the case."
Mr. Loeb was a precocious driver, holding the steering wheel of his father's car under supervision at 3 years of age and crashing it—all by himself—at 4. The son of teachers, Mr. Loeb competed in gymnastics before developing a keen interest in speed and motorized vehicles. An electrician by training, he had to wait until his early 20s to take part in his first rally competition. He turned professional a few years later with a spot on Citroën's rally team.
Mr. Loeb narrowly missed the world title his first full season, in 2003, but hasn't let go since. He and co-driver Daniel Elena won their 61st rally here after clinching their seventh world championship last month—two races before the end of the season. He even won a go-kart race held for WRC drivers before the rally.
A physician on Mr. Loeb's team says he owes part of his superiority to his extraordinary hand-eye coordination. Mr. Loeb himself says a key to his success is his visual memory, which allows him to remember specific curves from one year to the next and accelerate when others slow down—especially in conditions of poor visibility.
Few dispute that Mr. Loeb is the best rally driver in history, but one competitor isn't so quick to pass judgment. Mr. Solberg said the large infrastructure of the official Citroën team has been his rival's big advantage.
"Of course he's good, he's very good," Mr. Solberg said. But "honestly—in my opinion—he hasn't had proper competition."
For Fredrik Johnsson, the organizer of the Race of Champions, Mr. Loeb is the most versatile driver, while Michael Schumacher, the seven-time F1 champion, has an edge in pure speed. But Mr. Loeb said determining the better driver of the two was nearly impossible. He said he would win against Mr. Schumacher on a rally course while Mr. Schumacher would beat him on an F1 racetrack.
Mr. Schumacher said in an email that various motorsports can't be compared but that he had a lot of admiration for Mr. Loeb's accomplishments.
"I know Sébastien very well," he said, "we often have fun together on race tracks when we go motorbiking together."
Mr. Loeb conceded that Mr. Schumacher was "a bit better" when riding motorcycles at a racetrack near their homes in Switzerland, but he figured Mr. Schumacher benefited from his recent three-year retirement.
"He trained more than I did last year because he had nothing else to do," Mr. Loeb said.
. In any case, I think it's a sad day in any sport when there are not enough seats to go round and you can't get a car unless you are a pay driver. PG signed up to be a driving instructor in Dubai next year to a rich Saudi businessman. 
