ChooseESC! World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb supports ESC campaign

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World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb supports ESC campaign

On 29 May 2008, World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb demonstrated the safety gains of ESC during a ChooseESC! event in Athens, Greece. The event was organised in cooperation with Citroen, FIA and the Greek Automobile Club, ELPA in the scope of the Acropolis Rally.

David Ward, Director General, FIA Foundation - Sebastien Loeb, FIA WRC World Champion - Nikos Poriotis, Vice President, ELPA

The event was launched with a press conference including more than 50 international journalist. David Ward, Director General at the FIA Foundation and Campaign Chairman stressed in his opening that an effort should be made to make ESC available in all cars as estimates show that as much as 4,000 lives can be saved each year if all cars in Europe had ESC. Nikos Poriotis, Vice President of ELPA added to this that user awareness is extremely important to let the car buyers know what to look for when they buy a new car.

Four times World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb gave a strong endorsement to the campaign and told the press that no one can react as fast as ESC which is why people should choose this technology for their car. Mr Loeb said: “ESC controls the movement of the car 25 times a second and that is faster than any of us. Controlled slides are part of rallying, but when I am driving on public roads with my family, I want to avoid skidding at all costs. That's why I would always choose ESC for my car.” He was ask by journalist who he think would benefit the most from having ESC in their car. Mr Loeb said: “Young or inexperienced drivers are for sure those who might find themselves in situations where they get surprised about the reaction of their car in case of sudden emergency movements and here ESC can make a crucial difference. But every one of us can get into a situation that hit us so quickly that we only have a chance to regain control of the vehicle if ESC is there to help.

After the press conference Mr Loeb demonstrated to the journalists how effective this relatively simple technology is when used in practice. In his Citroën C2 he showed that even with a speed of 70 km/h he lost control of the vehicle when the ESC was switched off and ended up facing the oncoming traffic in the opposite lane. With ESC switched on again he could make the same emergency movement and end up in the right lane and in the right direction. He offered journalists to join him in the car for a closer inspection and they all seemed to enjoy learning more practical details about ESC this way.

After the demonstration Sébastien Loeb told the journalists that he was very impressed with the fact that he could not make the car skid when ESC was on and that seemed to surprise the four times rally world champion.