In our last part of the this amazing series with Lebanon all time rally record holder Roger Feghali, we go a little personal. Roger answers his critics, talks about his past memories and glories, speaks openly about ATCL, and tells us more about his motorsport idols, his hobbies and a few things about his passion for Real Madrid.
PART III
Your first official rally was in 1996. Back then you were new and there was a big hype around you. You instantly became a threat to legends that were at that time. What changed from 1996 to now?
I wish that when I started back then, there was a team like MotorTune to support me, and be on my side. It would have also been amazing, if there were people with drivers’ development programs so they could help us. We went through a lot of hard times to reach what we are on today. We started from scratch, we had no sponsors… We had absolutely nothing. The first couple of years were very difficult. We started to develop gradually and God helped us to reach this point. Back then Marlboro stood by our side and now we have Jack and Jones, Rayess racing parts, Motul and all our sponsors on our side. Our current sponsors don’t have the needed budget to go with us to international rallies; compared to the ones we had before. That’s why in the last couple of years our participation in rallies was limited to Lebanon, with some rallies in Jordan and Cyprus.
In 2001 and 2002, with Mistral Racing I got an amazing opportunity to do super 1600 in WRC, everything was great but you can’t win from the first year. Things like this need experience year after year. It was the first time in my life I do only two runs on the stages before the rally. We were used on practicing a lot on the roads before we rally. In the Super 1600 championship, we had many differences with the setup and small bits and pieces created the difference. I learned a lot and I wanted to continue year after year but we didn’t find the financial support to continue.
What really changed, I am more mature and I have more experience, from all the drivers that drove for MotorTune and from all the teams I drove for with WRC cars, or in the world rally championship or any team when a new engineer would come. I drove for many KM and really learned a lot.
I feel I still have the thirst for rallying. I feel I have the energy to give more and if there is a big program I can do, I would never hesitate. This situation with the sponsors doesn’t make you desperate, but never the less would make you realize that this is what’s available, so you have to accept that and move on. Look at this year we only drove 60 Km in the spring rally. Let’s assume that we practiced for 100 Km it’s still not enough. 160 Km are nothing, they barely sum up one day in the world championship. Look at the other drivers, and the budget they have. You are staying in your place in terms of performance. We need to drive more and more to enhance our performance.
You talked about the energy you still have and the thirst for rallying. You are 37 years old and many drivers in the WRC are much older than you, and they are completing big programs. So let’s say you got you got the right financial backing, maybe in 5 or 8 years, are you still willing to go through international programs?
The most important thing is to be competitive. If I find that I still am competitive I will do it. It would not be good if you compete and at the end of the day, you find yourself not giving your maximum and fighting hard you won’t enjoy it. If you are finishing in the 20th position within your category or even 5th or 7th and you are way off the pace, it’s not worth it. In rallies you might participate and finish in the 20th position because of some problems, this is fine, but you would have been scoring times in the top 3, this will be amazing. When you are competitive you get the satisfaction.
Many people consider you a show off, arrogant and temperamental while others idolize you and follow you from rally to rally and even abroad. Why does this variation exist?
I have my own character. I am not a show off and I am not better than anybody, and I am a human being like everybody else. I never changed from the day I started rallying, and it never mattered if I won or lost or anything else. I practice rallying because it’s my passion, and I have succeeded in it, and it has made a career for me. I have a great team and I am being able to help the drivers driving for me.
Honestly and openly I can say that the problem I have is, that my PR is not that good. For me, it is very difficult to do the effort for my PR in terms of getting the people around me and telling them stories.
People can say that I am a show off and arrogant, I don’t care I’m not like that. People who know me very well, and have worked with me know what Roger really is like. I didn’t change and I will never change. If someone approached me and said hi I would say hi back, but I am not the kind that will go to him and open a conversation. Maybe I am not sociable.
Your character is very different than your brother Dado, he has a very good PR and he is very sociable. How do you explain this?
It’s just a difference in characters. If I have a brand to promote, I would definitely choose Dado to be the face of the brand. I can’t be like him and I find it normal. In my life I’m normal I would say hello to everybody and I never ignore anyone.
-Sometimes there would be some misperception; Raikkonen is misperceived like this isn’t he?-
Raikkonen is a little different. The gap to such people is very big. Fans would run to take a picture near Raikkonen he would never look at them. If you call him he would never answer. Ok, he has a lot of fans and a lot of people around him, this thing I don’t like. I am totally different if I am approached I would never ignore a fan, but for me to go after people I don’t do it. To be like Raikkonen and other people, no, I am completely different.
In all the rallies we see you competing with Dado, you always finish in front. Some claim you always have the better car, and others say that you are the faster man, what do you say?
I’m not better than Dado or anybody else. I am working a lot, and I take my work very seriously especially in my preparation. I am not better than Dado, if I am better than Dado he would be 5 min a drift. Dado is always very close and very competitive, and he is one of the people who gave me the hardest competition in the history of the Rally Of Lebanon. Dado is very fast and our performance is very close.
Some would say that I prepare my car better than his! I guess this is rubbish talk. Dado participates with me in many rallies and with MotorTune too, at the end it’s a family business. Last year was the first time his car was prepared by MotorTune for the Rally Of Lebanon. Dado has been doing ROL since 1998, we were competing all the time, but last year was the first time that we were on the same team.
-The talk about you preparing weaker cars for your teammates is very common, why?-
People can say whatever they want. But who speaks like that knows nothing about the sport.
Let’s have a flashback to the past. You have driven all kinds of rally cars, starting from group Ns reaching WRC cars. What’s your favorite and what’s the difference between the WRC cars you drove previously and the Group Ns you’re driving now?
Every car has its specialty and importance, but the car I can’t forget is definitely the Lancia. Don’t forget Lancia was a previous world champion. Ever since I was a kid, I was a Lancia fan so driving it was very important to me. When I got the chance to drive a branded Lancia Marlboro it was a dream coming true and I will never forget it. That season anyway has been one of the best seasons in my life. That year was amazing. I was with a new team, Astra with the Bazirji family who backed Lebanese motorsports a lot. They supported me; I had Freddy ZreiK with me. The following year Freddy and Michel Mekattaf founded Mistral and it was one of the best years in my life. We did our first gravel rally in that year and I was very competitive from the beginning. It was my best car and my best season (2000).
WRC cars are totally different. They were very fast cars. The Subaru for example was amazing. Back then, we were driving world champion car with engineer from ProDrive and I learned a lot from them.
WRC cars differ from group N cars a lot. They were much better, much more important and much faster. Their response was different. They are very different from group N. when I drove the S2000 car it was a bit similar mechanically, and the setup was also very close to WRC cars. The S2000 is a completely different concept than group N. I drove the car last year and it was amazing and we learned a lot. I don’t know with the R4 kits how things will evolve. Don’t forget it’s still in the primary phase. It still didn’t compete; it will do its first rally in Sardinia next week so we will see what its performance will be.
You drove alongside many professional and successful co-drivers, such as Ziad Chehab, Nabil Njiem, Joseph Matar, Nicolas Arena, and many others. With whom were you the most comfortable, and what is the difference between them?
Ziad Chehab is my friend. We met before rallying and we started together bit by bit. We struggled a lot and we went through a lot together, with him and his brother Fouad. They helped me a lot to start our career. It was amazing. The first time we won together was amazing. There were many benefits together. The only problem we face back then was to find the budget.
I drove with Nabil starting from 2004 until last year. I am driving with Joseph this year. I drove with Giovanni Bernachini too. I also drove with Samer Sfeir for 2 rallies after the accident in 1998. Bruno Brissar drove with me for 2 rallies in the WRC. Ata Hamoud drove with me for 3 local rallies in Jordan. I can’t say who is better and who is not but, I can say that every single one has his paying writing pace notes and giving his feedback, but in the end everyone has his own way. They all listen to me a lot. We worked to the maximum with every one of them. They were all very professional and I would not consider one more “professional” than the other. They are all top co-drviers and they all helped me to get where I am now.
Back then when you started, you were rallying against legends, like Jean Pierre Nasralla, Mohammad Bin Suliem, Adel Metni, Abdullah BaKhashab, Billy Karam and many others. Within a very short time you took their place in people’s heart. Is the lack of competitors, after those legends finished their career the main reason you became idolized and loved by the audience?
I had the chance to challenge all those people. It is a very nice feeling to go from a very young age with minimum resources, and gradually develop until you get the chance to challenge them and win. This was the most amazing thing in my life.
Regarding the competition now days, we can’t say that it is absent. In international rallies, we are having very tough competition and the level is very high. In local rallies we are facing this problem, but I think that if we see Dado participating again the competition will rise. There are many drivers in Lebanon who are not participating other than Dado. Dado is already doing speed tests hill climb and ROL, but there are many people who are not participating. There are many old and big names and we hope we see them participating again.
The international events are experiencing bigger competition and everybody is increasing his level, so I hope we have a stronger competition in the future.
Some people claim that the lack of sponsoring in rallies is partly because of your dominance, how do you see this?
I don’t know if I am boring people, and I don’t know about this story, but I believe that those who are saying this are weak and are not scoring results. It is the problem of my rivals. They need to increase their level to compete and beat me. If this is the solution for sponsors to come back well this has become very easy.
Who are the local drivers who had a big impression on you, and you feel that they didn’t get what they have deserved in terms of international success?
I was born in a house of rallying. I remember Tony Georgiou and Joe Hindy who used to drive for our Garage. I was influenced by these drivers a lot. After that Jean Pierre Nasrallah drove for us. We used to follow Johnny Moakadieh a lot too. Johnny was amazing. We used to follow all the previous champs, to check out how he is driving and so on.
When I started rallying in 1996, I had all the Info about the drivers and their career. I knew their results and their performance and what were their advantages and disadvantages. Every single one of them had a big influence on me. Drivers like Billy Karam, Ziad Ghandour also had their effect on me and others. Every single one had something special.
In 2005 Tony Georgiou drove my car in Oman. It was like a dream come true for me to sit next to Tony Georgiou while he was driving my car, a car prepared by MotorTune. Michel Saleh drove a car prepared by MotorTune too.
All these names were great, and they are the idols of MotorSports in Lebanon.
How do you see the motorsport events organized by ATCL and how do you evaluate their work?
I would rather call them small. I am grateful for the effort done by ATCL. Don’t forget that my career started in Lebanon, on Lebanese roads and in rallies organized by ATCL. Many things need to improve though.
We need longer rallies. The total amount of Km driven in the championship would sum up to around 500 or 600KM. This is not enough for young drivers to develop their skills. The total amount of Km would be equal to a rally and a half in the WRC. It is not enough. We need more rallies in
We need more serious rallies in the championship. We need the rallies to be more like events that attract spectators. Such events will attract sponsors and will help the sport. I know that they are trying their best, and I know that they lack sponsoring as well, but they need to invest more in order to attract sponsors.
I would like to include rounds in Turkey, Jordan, Syria, and Cyprus to the Lebanese championship so drivers have more Km to drive for example.
Who was your motorsport Idol, especially that we see the picture Ayrton Senna here in your office?
In F1 Senna was my Idol for sure. Now I am a Ferrari fan so I’m totally with Alonso, although Hamilton is very fast and Vettel is very strong.
How do you see F1 in the last couple of years?
This year is also amazing. We need Ferrari to start pushing again so every one of us will get more enthusiastic.
Do you think they can still catch on?
Well every year they push when they are far. Take last year for example they were far although they won the first GP, but they ended losing the championship in the last round due to strategy and other things.
-And what about rallies?-
In rallies I used to love Marko Allen, Henri Toivonen and Miki Biasion. They were all Lancia drivers so this is somehow understood. But my all time favorite is Colin McRae. If we are talking about current rally drivers, I will have to say that Latavala and Ogier are very fast and they are 2 of the best.
-How do you see Loeb this year especially that Ogier has been beating him fair and square in all rallies putting the Mexico retirement aside? –
There is a huge pressure on Loeb. Ogier has nothing to lose. If he beats Loeb everybody would give him credit, if he didn’t everybody would say that he is new and needs time so he has no pressure at all. We can’t remove Loeb from the equation. He will be back, but when, we will see.
We have the impression that motorsport is your world, but away from it what are your hobbies?
Well this is the problem. Everything I have in this world is rally. I do some basketball and some ping pong, and I watch all kinds of sports on TV, especially football.
-Who do you support in football?-
Well in football I support Real Madrid. I love Cristiano Ronaldo wherever he goes. I like the Brazilian Ronaldo too, especially when he came to Madrid in addition to Beckham. I like the stars who play for Madrid so this IS why I support Madrid. I support AC Milan and Manchester United in England, but if you ask me who I would love to win the champions league I would definitely say Real Madrid.
I do some sports, but my biggest worry is my family and I spend as much time as possible with them. Don’t forget that a family needs a lot of time to give.
Do your children have an obvious talent or passion in rallying or cars?
My son Alex was very passionate about it up until he was 4 years old. He used to be very obsessed with rallying. He used to sit and watch on boards, for hours with me and he used to know all the rally drivers. Later on he totally dismissed the whole thing and he has no interest in it. I didn’t give it much importance. Its better anyway, I want him to do rally because he wants to do rally, and not because I’m his father so he gets obliged to win and so on. In such matters you can’t force anybody to do it. Its either he loves rally or not. It’s up to him maybe he wants to play football or something else. I need them to follow their own passion. If they decide one day to go in my footsteps I will support them 200%. Roger Jnr is still very young so we need to give him some time. But for Alex it’s up to him.
In the end I would like to thank my team MotorTune, with all its members. I would like to thanks my sponsors, Jack and Jones, Rayess Racing parts and Motul. I would also like to thank www.biser3a.com and wish you all the best for the future.
Photos used in the Interview are the property of the following parties:
Akl Yazbeck
Khaled Karam and www.biser3a.com
I like rally Facebook fan Page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/I-Like-Rally/116170635087705)
The Video used in the Interview is the property of the following party:
Anthony Hage – ahage4x4 youtube Channel. (http://www.youtube.com/user/ahage4x4#p/u/51/p2zlOD2jiSU)