First there was France’s Sébastien Loeb with nine consecutive World Rally Championship titles between 2004 and 2012. Then came Germany’s Sebastian Vettel who dominated Formula One for four straight seasons ending in 2013.
Today, it’s the turn of another Frenchman, Sébastien Ogier to leave the opposition trailing in his wake.
The 31-year-old Volkswagen driver has dominated rallying over the past two seasons winning back-to-back world titles alongside co-driver and compatriot Julien Ingrassia.
Ogier may have an unimpeded view at the front of the field now, but the road ahead hasn’t always been so clear.
“Of course it was not a straight or easy way to the top,” Ogier told CNN’s Human to Hero series.
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Ogier has begun 2015 where he left off last year, driving to victories at the opening two races in Monte Carlo and Sweden. The sequence extends his winning streak of rallies to four and few will be betting against the flying Frenchman making it five in a row at the next rally in Mexico in March.
His rivals may hope that his recent marriage to German TV presenter Andrea Kaiser may soften his desire to win, but with most rally drivers peaking in their 30s, Ogier is perhaps just beginning a run of success that could rival Loeb’s historic sequence of titles.
But as he’s learned from driving a car at breakneck speed, it pays to concentrate on the stretch of road immediately up ahead.
“I don’t have such a long plan in front of me — I just take the year, one after each other.
“For sure, I want to race a few more years but to be honest I really don’t know, I always think about the future dreaming about family, children, being a normal person again.”
