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让我们来认识一下全世界开车最好的人

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Meet the best driver in the world.


让我们来认识一下全世界开车最好的人。



Of course, the unofficial title will always be in question, but France's Sebastien Loeb, the world champion of rally, has a better claim to it than most.


当然，这个非官方头衔应该归属于谁总是充满争议，但获得世界拉力赛冠军的法国车手塞巴斯蒂安•勒布(Sebastien Loeb)比绝大多数人更有资格问鼎这一称号。



Besides a record seven consecutive titles in the World Rally Championship, racing's preeminent multi-terrain circuit, the 36-year-old has excelled in various motorsports. He finished second at the 24 hours of Le Mans endurance race in 2006, and he bested most of the professional Formula 1 drivers that were present at a winter testing session in 2008 despite having little experience with an F1 car. He also has three victories in the Race of Champions, an annual event pitting the best rally, F1, endurance and Nascar drivers against one another in identical cars.


除了创纪录地连续七次摘得世界汽车拉力锦标赛(World Rally Championship)这一著名多路况赛事的桂冠外，36岁的勒布还在其它各项赛事中名列前茅。2006年，他获得勒芒(Le Mans)24小时汽车耐力赛的第二名。在2008年的F1冬季测试赛上，他克服了开F1赛车经验不足的问题，超越了绝大多数一级方程式赛车(Formula 1)专业车手。他还在世界车王争霸赛(Race of Champions)上获得过三次胜利，这是每年一度将F1、耐力赛、纳斯卡赛车(Nascar)等顶级拉力赛的冠军车手聚集在一起、驾驭统一规格的赛车角逐王中王的盛大赛事。



But it's the sport that Mr. Loeb dominates that gives a better measure of his talent.


不过，正是勒布最擅长的拉力赛，可以更好地展现出他的赛车天赋。



It's one thing to drive a racecar really fast on a racetrack. It is a different thing altogether to drive a racecar really fast on an icy mountain road with trees on one side, a cliff on the other and large fauna occasionallystanding in the middle. Rally's sinuous courses allow for plenty of last-second braking, vertiginous acceleration and liberal use of the handbrake in tight curves.


在普通赛道上飞速行驶是一回事，在一边是树林、一边是悬崖、路中间有时会站着大型动物的结冰山路上飞快行驶是另一回事。拉力赛曲折迂回的赛道给了车手充分的展示空间，车手经常需要在最后一刻紧急刹车，做出各种眼花缭乱的加速动作，在急转弯漂移时灵活自如地运用手刹。



'I have the most fun in rally because of the variety of terrains,' Mr. Loeb said. 'Competing on a racetrack gets a bit tiresome after a while.'


勒布说，我最喜欢拉力赛，因为地形路况千变万化。在普通赛道上跑一段时间后会觉得有些无聊。



The typical rally season runs from February to November across continents and is made up of multi-day events. While some rally competitions use tarred roads, most take place on gravel, sand, mud or snow. Because most take place in natural environments, sometimes nature finds its way to the middle of the road.


拉力赛季一般从2月份开始，11月份结束，地点遍布五大洲，由每次持续数天的不同赛事组成。虽然有些拉力赛在柏油路上进行，但大多数会选择碎石路、沙地、泥路或雪地作为赛道。因为多数比赛在自然环境中进行，有时会受到各种自然因素的阻挠。



Earlier this year, former F1 champion Kimi Raikkonen narrowly missed a moose at the Sweden Rally. Mr. Loeb couldn't avoid hitting a cow at the Rally of Argentina in 2005, but he went on to win the event anyway. The cow seemed fine, Mr. Loeb said. Norway's Petter Solberg, one of Mr. Loeb's fiercest rivals and the last man not named Loeb to win a world championship, wasn't so lucky at the Australia Rally in 2005. Neither was the kangaroo with which his car collided.


2010年初，前F1冠军车手基米•莱科宁(Kimi Raikkonen)在瑞典拉力赛上险些撞上一头驼鹿。勒布在2005年的阿根廷拉力赛上躲闪不及，撞上一头奶牛，但还是继续比赛，并最终赢得冠军。勒布说，那头奶牛看起来没什么事。挪威的彼德•索尔伯格(Petter Solberg)是勒布最大的竞争对手，也是目前唯一一位打败过勒布获得了世界拉力赛冠军的车手，他在2005年的澳大利亚拉力赛上运气不佳，跟他赛车撞上的袋鼠也是倒了血霉。



It's no surprise, then, that drivers from the ranks of F1, which just crowned its youngest champion in Sebastian Vettel, have yet to make a smooth transition to rally. Mr. Raikkonen in particular has struggled in his first season. He failed to score points at most of the events he entered, and at the rally held here recently, he crashed his car before the rally even started.


因此，F1顶级车手转战拉力赛并非易事也就不足为奇了。（F1赛场刚刚横空出世了有史以来最年轻的冠军塞巴斯蒂安•维泰尔[Sebastian Vettel]）。莱科宁在拉力赛的头个赛季中尤其难过，参加的绝大多数赛事都未能得分，在最近的西班牙拉力赛上，比赛还没开始，他的车就撞坏了。



'Raikkonen's switch to rally is a huge boost to the championship,' said Gerard Bridier, founder of a rally magazine. 'Formula 1 being the self-proclaimed king of motorsports, people thought that an F1 champion would be able to dominate any other discipline. Raikkonen proved it's just not the case.'


某拉力赛杂志的创办人吉拉德•布雷迪尔(Gerard Bridier)说，莱科宁投身拉力赛，是对这项赛事的一个巨大推动。一级方程式赛车自称是汽车运动的老大，人们以为F1冠军能在其它任何赛事中所向披靡，而莱科宁的经历证明，这种认识是错误的。



Mr. Loeb was a precocious driver, holding the steering wheel of his father's car under supervision at 3 years of age and crashing it -- all by himself -- at 4. The son of teachers, Mr. Loeb competed in gymnastics before developing a keen interest in speed and motorized vehicles. An electrician by training, he had to wait until his early 20s to take part in his first rally competition. He turned professional a few years later with a spot on Citroen's rally team.


勒布是个很早就崭露头角的车手，三岁时就在大人的监督下开起了父亲的汽车，四岁时自己一个人开车，并把车撞坏。勒布出生于一个教师家庭，小时候从事体操运动，后来对竞速和汽车运动产生浓厚的兴趣。他曾是一名受过正规培训的电工，熬到20岁出头才第一次参加汽车拉力赛，几年后成为一名专业车手，加入雪铁龙(Citroen)的拉力车队。



Mr. Loeb narrowly missed the world title his first full season, in 2003, but hasn't let go since. He and co-driver Daniel Elena won their 61st rally here after clinching their seventh world championship last month -- two races before the end of the season. He even won a go-kart race held for WRC drivers before the rally.


2003年勒布第一次完整参加了拉力赛季，与世界冠军失之交臂，但此后他就再也没让冠军旁落。2010年10月，他和副驾驶丹尼尔•埃里纳(Daniel Elena)第七次将世界汽车拉力锦标赛的冠军收入囊中，之后又在西班牙萨洛(Salou)获得拉力赛的第61次赛段胜利--还有两个赛段本赛季就要结束。他甚至还赢得了世界汽车拉力锦标赛开始前为车手举办的一个卡丁车大赛的冠军。



A physician on Mr. Loeb's team says he owes part of his superiority to his extraordinary hand-eye coordination. Mr. Loeb himself says a key to his success is his visual memory, which allows him to remember specific curves from one year to the next and accelerate when others slow down -- especially in conditions of poor visibility.


勒布所在车队的一位医生表示，勒布之所以能够屡战屡胜，部分得益于他出色的手眼协调能力。勒布说，他的成功秘诀是自己的视觉记忆力，让他能够记住每一年不同赛道上的具体弯道情况，在其他车手减速的时候勇于加速--尤其是在可视状况极差的情况下。



Few dispute that Mr. Loeb is the best rally driver in history, but one competitor isn't so quick to pass judgment. Mr. Solberg said the large infrastructure of the official Citroen team has been his rival's big advantage.


如果说勒布是拉力赛历史上最出色的车手，很少有人会提出异议。不过，还有一名竞争者无法被轻易遗忘，那就是索尔伯格。索尔伯格表示，雪铁龙车队庞大的支持体系是勒布最大的竞争优势。



'Of course he's good, he's very good,' Mr. Solberg said. But 'honestly -- in my opinion -- he hasn't had proper competition.'


索尔伯格说，当然，他很棒，非常棒。但说实话，我觉得他只是一直没有遇到合适的竞争对手而已。



For Fredrik Johnsson, the organizer of the Race of Champions, Mr. Loeb is the most versatile driver, while Michael Schumacher, the seven-time F1 champion, has an edge in pure speed. But Mr. Loeb said determining the better driver of the two was nearly impossible. He said he would win against Mr. Schumacher on a rally course while Mr. Schumacher would beat him on an F1 racetrack.


在世界冠军争霸赛的组织者雷德里克•约翰逊(Fredrik Johnsson)看来，勒布是一名最善于适应多种路况的车手，而F1大赛的七届冠军得主迈克尔•舒马赫(Michael Schumacher)在纯竞速方面拥有优势。不过，勒布表示，要在自己和舒马赫之间判断哪个更出色几乎是不可能完成的任务，他说自己能在拉力赛道上击败舒马赫，而舒马赫能在F1赛道上战胜他。



Mr. Schumacher said in an email that various motorsports can't be compared but that he had a lot of admiration for Mr. Loeb's accomplishments.


舒马赫在一封电子邮件中表示，不同的赛车运动无法进行比较，但他对勒布所获的各项成就深表钦佩。



'I know Sebastien very well,' he said, 'we often have fun together on race tracks when we go motorbiking together.'


他说，我很了解勒布，我们经常一起出去骑摩托车，在赛道上玩得很开心。



Mr. Loeb conceded that Mr. Schumacher was 'a bit better' when riding motorcycles at a racetrack near their homes in Switzerland, but he figured Mr. Schumacher benefited from his recent three-year retirement.


勒布承认，他们在瑞士住所附近举行的一场摩托车竞技中，舒马赫要厉害一点点，但他指出，这是因为舒马赫得益于最近三年的归隐生活。



'He trained more than I did last year because he had nothing else to do,' Mr. Loeb said.


勒布这样说道，他去年在摩托车方面训练得比我多，因为他没有别的事情可干。



Nicolas Brulliard


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