Citroen has underlined that it ‘would not prevent’ record-breaking multiple World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb from making his F1 debut – provided it comes outside of the WRC season – as the Frenchman expressed his ‘surprise’ that his remarks about compatriot Sébastien Bourdais had been ‘misquoted or taken out of context to spread rumours’.
Over the weekend of the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring – one speculated to have been Bourdais’ last in the top flight with Scuderia Toro Rosso, following a disappointing and lacklustre sophomore campaign during which the quadruple former Champ Car king has found himself routinely outpaced by rookie team-mate Sébastien Buemi – quotes were attributed to Loeb to the effect that he would happily replace his countryman at the small Faenza-based squad should he be asked.
However, the man himself – under contract at Citroën until the end the 2009 WRC campaign, with negotiations for 2010 ‘in the process of being finalised’ – has insisted that his attentions remain entirely on chasing a sixth consecutive drivers’ world championship crown.
“I know what my priority is,” stressed the 35-year-old Alsacien, the most successful driver in official WRC history. “It is the World Rally Championship – but what would you expect a driver to answer if asked whether he would like to drive a Formula 1 car? That said, with four rallies still to come, we have our work cut out if we want to secure a sixth drivers’ title and a fifth manufacturers’ crown. For the moment, my energy is fully focused on that goal.
“I am a little surprised by the turn this whole business has taken, and above all by the way what I said has been misquoted or taken out of context to spread rumours. It just isn’t really my style to make declarations in the press about Sébastien Bourdais.”
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