The top 10 greatest WRC drivers

Within the halls of motorsport, the sport of rallying champions talent and bravery in a way that no other racing discipline captures in quite the same way.

Of the various household names and characters that the grand stage of the World Rally Championship has forged, our resident expert Scott Newman crunches the numbers and ranks the ten greatest WRC drivers of all time.

10. Miki Biasion

Titles: 2 (88,89)
Wins: 17 (21.7%)
Podiums: 40 (51.3%)
Stage Wins: 373

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While possibly an unfamiliar name to many, for a period in the late-1980s Biasion was virtually unbeatable.

In his two championship seasons Biasion won 10 of the 12 rallies he contested and finished second in another. Yes, he was driving the dominant Delta Integrale, but so were his teammates and he wiped the floor with them.

It’s amazing he wanted to keep rallying at all having seen Lancia teammates Attilio Bettaga, Henri Toivonen and Sergio Cresto die during the Group B era. Biasion survived and thrived during the Group A era, remaining a constant podium finisher after a switch to Ford, right up until the end of his WRC career in 1994.

9. Markku Alén

Titles: -
Wins: 19 (14.7%)
Podiums: 56 (43.4%)
Stage Wins: 801

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Marku Alén, pictured right

The only driver on this list without a world title to his name, however, if you look at it another way Alén has two.

He won the 1978 FIA Driver’s Cup which was the World Rally Championship in all but name and was the 1986 champion for 11 days before the FIA annulled the San Remo results (justly, to be honest) and handed the title to Kankkunen.

A fiery Finn who felt most at home at Italian teams, it didn’t matter what Alén drove he was blindingly quick, coining the phrase “now maximum attack”.

A testament to his speed and longevity is the fact that he still sits second on the all-time list for stage wins.

8. Walter Röhrl

Titles: 2 (80,82)
Wins: 14 (18.7%)
Podiums: 31 (41.3%)
Stage Wins: 420

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In terms of ability there is a case that Röhrl could top the list. He was a game changer in the art of rallying, realising sideways was slow, fitness was crucial and preparation was key.

Witness his exploits on the 42km Arganil stage in the 1980 Portugal rally. Shrouded in fog, Röhrl beat his nearest challenger by 3min48sec on the first pass and 1min55sec on the second, extending his lead by almost 12 minutes.

Had he not avoided the rallies he didn’t like (Finland, Sweden, UK), not been so loyal to fellow Bavarians Audi (Peugeot offered him the 205 T16 drive) and not retired from the WRC due to finding the Group A cars boring, his stats would be much healthier.

7. Marcus Grönholm

Titles: 2 (00,02)
Wins: 30 (19.6%)
Podiums: 61 (39.9%)
Stage Wins: 542

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The quintessential Flying Finn, Grönholm gives hope to late bloomers everywhere. Sporadic appearances at Rally Finland in works-supported Toyotas showed enough speed for Peugeot to make a surprise signing to lead its 206 program.

Tackling his first full season at the age of 32, Grönholm took advantage by winning the championship, backing it up two years later with another, scoring more than double the points of his nearest challenger.

Invincible in his native Finland, winning every year from 2000-2007 bar 2003 when he lost a wheel, Grönholm was also the only one able to consistently challenge Loeb. Deserves a spot on this list purely for his end of stage interviews (YouTube them).

6. Colin McRae

Titles: 1 (95)
Wins: 25 (17.1%)
Podiums: 42 (28.8%)
Stage Wins: 477

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The most popular and exciting rally driver ever get behind the wheel of a car, there is an element of sliding doors to McRae’s career.

Still the youngest WRC champion of all time, McRae was a mere five points away from being a three-time title holder, but was pipped by one point in 1997 and two in 2001.

His wild early exploits led to an unfair label as ‘Colin McCrash’ who was hard on the gear, but mechanical gremlins – especially in the fast but fragile Focus – cost him far more than his own mistakes. You don’t win the Safari Rally three times by being mechanically unsympathetic. Was negotiating a return to Subaru at the time of his untimely death.

5. Carlos Sainz

Titles: 2 (90, 92)
Wins: 26 (13.3%)
Podiums: 97 (49.5%)
Stage Wins: 757

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Another game changer, King Carlos ushered in a new era of professionalism in the WRC. A relentless test and development driver who was equally comfortable in the corporate world, this focus made up for what he lacked in raw speed (which wasn’t much).

He secured his two titles early but finished second four times and third five times. Sainz’s results page is a sea of podium colours, his first and last coming an incredible 17 years apart.

While he might have lacked a skerrick of pace compared to the likes of Mäkinen and McRae, Sainz was the first non-Nordic driver to win in Finland and has an incredible 757 stage wins to his name.

4. Tommi Mäkinen

Titles: 4 (96, 97, 98, 99)
Wins: 24 (12.4%)
Podiums: 45 (32.3%)
Stage Wins: 362

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The star that shines twice as bright burns half as long. In contrast to Sainz, 18 of Mäkinen’s 24 wins came within a four-year span. A late starter like his fellow Finn Gronholm, a one-off win with Ford at Rally Finland 1994 secured Mäkinen the Mitsubishi contract for 1995 that would lead to an unprecedented run of consecutive success.

There was an element of good fortune in Mäkinen’s title dominance. Four straight retirements in 1997 (all mechanical) led to McRae finishing one point behind and a year later, Mäkinen had crashed out of the final round early leaving Sainz to cruise to the title, only for his Corolla to grind to a halt 400m from the finish line.

3. Juha Kankkunen

Titles: 4 (86, 87, 91, 93)
Wins: 23 (14.2%)
Podiums: 75 (46.3%)
Stage Wins: 700

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No driver spanned as many eras as Juha Kankkunen. His first WRC appearance was in 1979 at Rally Finland in a Group 4 Ford Escort Mk II, while his last, 31 years later at the same event, was in a fully active Ford Focus World Rally Car.

Along the way he tamed the fierce 400kW Peugeot 205 T16 to win his first title then backed it up with half the horsepower the following year in the Group A Lancia Delta. Another Lancia championship appeared in 1991 but his fourth and final was arguably his best, using three co-drivers throughout the year!

A late-career switch to Subaru brought two more victories, 14 years after his first, while in 2010 he returned to Rally Finland to celebrate his 50th birthday and ran consistently in the top 10 to finish eighth. A remarkable driver.

2. Sébastien Ogier

Titles: 8 (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21)
Wins: 54 (32.1%)
Podiums: 92 (54.5%)
Stage Wins: 638

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Sébastien Ogier was destined for greatness from the moment he entered the WRC. Having won the Junior WRC in 2008 his prize was a World Rally Car drive in the season-ending Rally GB, where he went quickest on stage one. He subsequently crashed, but the point was made.

Ogier always looked likely to inherit Loeb’s mantle but few thought he’d get so close. In 2021 he wrapped up his eighth title, like Kankkunen, with three different manufacturers.

The two Sébs fell out while teammates at Citroën, forcing Ogier to Volkswagen, a move that proved savvy as he would go on to dominate the sport for the next four years. A move to M-Sport proved he didn’t need the best machinery to win and he continued to bat away challenges from the new guard. There is only one better.

1. Sébastien Loeb

Titles: 9 (04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12)
Wins: 80 (44.2%)
Podiums: 120 (66.3%)
Stage Wins: 931

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Sometimes numbers don’t tell the whole story. And sometimes they do. Despite his decade-long run of success, Ogier is still 26 wins behind his fellow Frenchman. That’s more than anyone bar Sainz and Grönholm.

Loeb’s win percentage is 44.2%. Ogier is second at 32.1%, Biasion third at 21.7%. His longevity is virtually unparalleled, his first podium coming in Germany 2001 and his last (so far) 19 years later in Turkey 2020.

But numbers alone don’t make Loeb the top dog of the sport. There are the firsts, such as being the first non-Nordic driver to win in the Swedish snow, or the first to win every stage of a rally in Corsica 2005. He also changed the game. His precise, tarmac-derived driving style was a perfect match for the active-diffed World Rally Cars, yet when the regulations changed to encourage more sideways action, he won then, too.

Detractors will say he was almost always in the best car and his dominance coincided with a talent drought in the WRC. There’s an element of truth in that, but rarely did we see Loeb at full pace. That was the secret of his success – his 90 per cent was as quick as others’ 100 per cent.

When he did, such as in 2010 in New Zealand, watch out. A crash on SS4 resulted in Loeb finishing the first day 1min20sec behind the leader. A day later, he was 5.3sec behind in second, having taken more than 1:15sec out of the world’s best rally drivers in seven stages. And that’s why he’s number one.