Sebastien Ogier has won multiple championships throughout his illustrious career in the World Rally Championship, so here’s everything you need to know about the Frenchman.
Ogier began his WRC career in 2008, driving a Citroen C2 S1600 in a partial campaign, scoring an eighth-place finish on his debut at Rally Mexico.
During his career, he has raced for Citroen, Volkswagen, Ford and Toyota, and has shown immense ability to win on every surface in multiple cars.
He took his first WRC victory at the Rally de Portugal in 2010 for Citroen after stepping up from the French manufacturer’s junior team. Alongside rallying, he has also raced at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2 class.
Sebastien Ogier won his first WRC title in 2013
Ogier hit the ground running in his WRC career, winning his first championship in just his second season with the Citroen World Rally Team after initially racing as a private entry and with the Citroen Junior Team.
The Frenchman took his first victory in the WRC in Portugal in 2010 after driving to a couple of podium finishes in Mexico and New Zealand.
Ogier dominated the opening day in Portugal, winning five of the seven stages in a blistering run of consecutive victories towards the end of the day.
The midpoint of the season saw the Citroen driver perform admirably, taking three podium finishes from four rallies, including his second win of the season in Japan.
The following season in 2011 saw a step forward for Ogier, who continued with Citroen, taking five wins, including a second consecutive victory in Portugal.
He also finished third in the standings but could not challenge Sebastien Loeb and Mikko Hirvonen, who battled for the championship.
Then, 2012 saw a switch to Volkswagen and a step back for Ogier, who had proven over the past couple of seasons that he could compete at the front of the field.
He failed to score a podium with VW during his first season with the German manufacturer, finishing outside the top 10 in the opening two rounds, including a retirement at the Monte Carlo Rally.
The Frenchman scored a best finish of fifth place at Rally Italia Sardegna, his only top-five finish of the season.
After the frustrations of 2012, the next campaign in 2013 proved that making the move to VW was the correct decision as he dominated the series, taking his first title.
The Volkswagen driver finished solely in first and second place during the first five events of the year, winning three rallies in a row in Sweden, Mexico and Portugal.
Rally Argentina yielded second place and five stage wins, but it wasn’t enough to usurp Loeb during the series’ only visit to South America that year.
Ogier put together a blistering run towards the end of the season, winning six of the final eight rallies with just a couple of disappointing events in Greece and Germany, finishing in 10th and P17.
The 2013 WRC champion won the title by a commanding 114-point margin over Thierry Neuville, who failed to win a rally all year.
Sebastien Ogier raced at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2022
Ogier competed in the opening three rounds of the World Endurance Championship in 2022, racing at Sebring and Spa-Francorchamps in preparation for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The rally legend finished all three races at the highest level of endurance racing, a very different discipline to the twisty rally stages he usually competed on.
His campaign kicked off with a 12th-place finish alongside Lilou Wadoux Charles Milesi at the 1000 Miles of Sebring.
Spa-Francorchamps saw an improvement from the trio, breaking into the top 10 at the end of the six-hour race in Belgium with an eighth-place finish.
After two WEC rounds to build up ahead of Ogier’s debut race at Le Mans, the No. 1 car qualified in seventh place, just missing out on Hyperpole, which decided the top six on the grid for the 24-hour race
Ogier and the Richard Mille Racing Team car were competitive throughout the opening hours, keeping up with the leaders in the LMP2 class.
The Frenchman finished and helped the car to 13th place overall, but his stints weren’t without errors in France. He earned his car a stop-go penalty after a dangerous entry to the pit lane.
Ogier admitted it was his mistake during the race via DirtFish: “So far, the assessment is pretty good, but it’s a shame we got this penalty from my first triple stint with my mistake at the pitlane entry.”
The eight-time WRC champion returned to the car at five am and drove an excellent stint to get the car up to 10th place in the LMP2 class, which turned into P9 at the chequered flag. The car with the all-French lineup finished three laps behind the winning LMP2 entry.
So, with that in mind, here is everything you need to know about WRC icon Ogier…
How old is Sebastien Ogier? Where was he born?
Ogier is 40 years old and was born on December 17, 1983, in Gap, Hautes-Alpes, France.
How tall is Sebastien Ogier? What is his height in feet?
Ogier is 1.81 metres tall, which measures 5’9 feet.
Sebastien Ogier’s career stats in WRC
As of the end of the 2023 World Rally Championship calendar, Ogier has won the second-most WRC titles of any driver. He sits behind only Loeb, with his French compatriot a nine-time champion.
WRC titles: 8
WRC rally entries: 182
WRC wins: 58
WRC podiums: 98