The unbeatable guy named Sébastien has been a dominant force in present-day rallying, with a Seb winning every World Rally Championship drivers’ title since 2004. That could end soon, as newly crowned five-time WRC champion Sébastien Ogier told the WRC he may consider retiring after this season.
Ogier hasn’t announced his WRC plans for 2018 yet, despite Citroën making it their one true goal to sign him away from his current team M-Sport. Now two heavy crashes in one week at Rally Finland as well as a young son and wife back home have him reconsidering whether he’ll stay in rally at all.
Ogier told the WRC of his Finland crash-o-rama:
Consider [retirement], yes. Of course, this kind of moment [winning the title] makes me think about the risks you take, especially like in the test. I couldn’t do anything with this crash, it was just bad luck.
Big rocks in the road, a flat out corner and I had no way to avoid it. It was a big crash coming to me.
Another influencing factor is the fact that Ogier’s wife gave birth to a baby boy in June of last year. Ogier told the WRC:
I am enjoying a lot of time at home with my son and my wife, of course you can see life differently, but when you make a weekend like this….
I’m not winning this weekend, but it was a big pleasure behind the steering wheel and also we have the fastest WRC car ever. It’s good fun as well.
I’m always analyzing a lot of things in my way of managing the championship and the way of managing my life in general, so I don’t make the decision easily. I’m still working on different options. I’m honest with you, right now I haven’t really decided.
He clearly wants to be there for his family, and doesn’t want a rally crash to cut that short.
This isn’t the first time Ogier has publicly talked about retiring, so it might just happen this year. He nearly retired after the end of the 2016 season, when Ogier’s then-team Volkswagen left the sport, Motorsport.com notes. Like now, Ogier said he wanted to spend more time with his wife and son.
With no other Sébastiens in the WRC or even WRC2 at the moment, Ogier retiring would finally break the streak of Seb domination. It’s been so long, I’m not sure I remember how to say some other name before the word “won” anymore.