Although he is a nine-time winner of the event and races at home, close to his hometown of Gap, “Monte-Carlo will never be simple” recalls Sébastien Ogier. The eight-time world rally champion will take part in his 16th Monte-Carlo Rally (14 in WRC, 2 in IRC), he who is the record holder for the number of victories in this event with nine successes (8 in WRC, 1 in IRC ). However, despite all his experience and all his successes on the “Monte-Carl’”, the Gapençais knows all the complexity of this emblematic round, in the Alpine cold with roads sometimes icy, sometimes snowy, sometimes dry or with mud on the rope points.
And in 2025, the difficulty will be even greater: between the arrival of Hankook as the sole manufacturer of the WRC, the withdrawal of the hybrid system, the reduction of the Rally1 or even the new points scale, this 2025 Monte-Carlo Rally could reserve some surprises… good or bad. Even if he was able to try his hand at the wheel of the GR Yaris Rally1 without electric power and equipped with the new South Korean tires, Sébastien Ogier recognizes that this Monte-Carlo could be one of the most difficult given the many unknowns which persist before the start of the season.
Ogier, a Loeb record in flight
“It’s always very exciting for me to prepare for the Monte-Carlo Rally and to continue my relationship with Toyota for another year,” confides the Frenchman, who is preparing to compete in his sixth season with the Japanese manufacturer and his fourth part-time season since his last title in 2021. I still have so much fun driving for this fantastic team, with whom I have stayed longer than any other in my career, and I hope to take even more fun in the car This year. »
“With less power, less weight and new tires, there are a lot of question marks at the start of the season, and it’s a new challenge for the teams and drivers to see who can adapt the better, underlines Sébastien Ogier, less than a week before the start of the 93rd edition of the Monte-Carlo Rally. Even after many starts, this rally never gets easier and I always approach it with respect for the challenge and, in a way, with a little fear, because you know you will be faced with unpredictable conditions . It’s about trying to manage risk, even more than in other rallies. »
-In conditions that promise to be difficult – with rain forecast in the Gap region for the weekend of January 23 to 26 – Sébastien Ogier will also have to adapt to the new features on the Yaris: to compensate for the lack of power that brought the hybrid, Toyota made modifications to the exhaust system and the camshafts while the gearbox staging was revised in order to optimize the whole. Whoever is aiming for a tenth victory on the Monte-Carlo Rally will undoubtedly be the big favorite for this 93rd edition. In the event of victory on Sunday January 26, he would equal the record for the number of victories on the same WRC rally, which still belongs to Sébastien Loeb (9 victories on the Rally of Germany and the Rally of Catalonia).
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