Too fast for the forests

On November 17 the first test of the winter got underway in Barcelona, Spain, and, at the wheel of the RB4, as part of a “thank you” from Red Bull for winning the World Rally Championship yet again, the driver was Sébastien Loeb.

One minute, 22 seconds and 503 thousandths for 4.655 kilometers: This is how long five-time Rally World Champion Sébastien Loeb took for his fastest lap in a Red Bull Racing car on the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. The 34-year-old Frenchman made eighth place after 82 laps – only 1.740 seconds behind Takuma Sato’s (JPN) best time in a Scuderia Toro Rosso car. Loeb left nine of the 17 drivers behind him – among them seasoned Formula 1 drivers like Nelson Piquet, Christian Klien, Tonio Liuzzi, Adrian Sutil and Marc Gene.

Having had a shakedown at Silverstone last week, the Frenchman had a better idea of what to expect and produced an excellent performance throughout the day. After spending most of the morning settling in and finding a good balance on the car, Loeb was actually put to more “serious” use in the afternoon, evaluating the Bridgestone slick tyres that will be used in 2009 and providing the team with valuable data.

“I don’t think I’d like to take this much horsepower into the forests!” quipped the Frenchman. “It was a great experience and I had fun, although I have to say that driving one of these cars is tougher physically than driving my rally car. Towards the end of the day, I began to get a good feel for the car and enjoyed the sensation of it moving around on the track. The times were going down – and I had the impression that I can do even better.”