Sainz: “Two meters to the left there is no hole”

Carlos Sainz abandoned the 2023 Dakar after reaching the Haradh bivouac and his mechanics and engineers found irreversible damage to the carbon fiber monocoque chassis of his Audi RS Q e-Tron, the result of a strong frontal impact against in the sands. , of 27 G. Audi quoted the Spanish press as being present in Haradh at around 9:00 pm (7:00 pm Spanish time). There, in the tent where the mechanics fixed his car, this time there was no sign of the car. It was then that the director of communications and the pilots announced the abandonment. Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz made it clear they were fine and the Spaniard highlighted the bad luck he had in that clash, as “two meters to the left and no hole”.

Carlos and Lucas will travel this Wednesday to their respective homes and the Spaniard said his traditional “period of reflection and recovery” will now begin, during which he will review everything Audi has to do to improve for Dakar 2024, which is hoped for. that the FIA ​​does its job and creates more fair rules between the cars in the premier class so that the Audi is not hurt too much with its greater weight (100 kilos more than the others). At the end of his explanation, he wanted to thank all the Spanish journalists for their work and for reporting in difficult conditions. The ‘Matador’ will fly to Spain with his next challenge in mind.

PHYSICAL STATE

“Fine, I’m fine. The body hurts after this second hard landing. The impacts also lasted for a few days and that’s normal, when you hit yourself twice like this, it’s about 27 G, it’s a strong blow. In the beginning I had a lot of pain from where it used to hurt, but in the end it gradually disappeared and I am better now”.

ON THE SOCIAL NETWORKS THEY PREDICTED THE RETURN TO THE HELICOPTER.

“This is not an act. And I say this with love and appreciation. The events were as before. I was hurt, the doctor asked him to wait a little to see if it would go away. The truth is that he became super affectionate and insisted that from his point of view we go to the hospital. After spending 20 minutes or half an hour entertaining him, in the end he insisted and I said: ‘if the doctor tells you that you have to go to the hospital, go’. And 10 minutes after boarding the helicopter, the pilot had to land because the pilot could not fly and entered the coordinates of the hospital at the same time. The helicopter landed there and I turned around and said to him: ‘I want to try to get the car serviced’. And then tonight, I feel better and it hurts less… But it doesn’t have more, honestly, I think it’s normal to try to bring the car and try to continue. And that’s what we did. The mechanics fixed it, we arrived, but when we got here the car was not fixed. Honestly, I don’t value that.”

CRUEL FINAL AFTER A YEAR OF A LOT OF WORK ON THE CAR

“It feels bad, because in the end it was a disappointment, a disappointment for Lucas, for me, for Stéphane (Peterhansel), for Edouard (Boulaner, Peterhansel’s co-driver, crashed on stage 6) , who was operated on today and it looks like he has Everything went well for Mattias (Ekström), who is still in the race but has no options. The entire Audi team is very excited and excited. It reminds me a little of the beginnings of Volkswagen (in Dakar), that the beginnings were very difficult and then everything followed. Hopefully we will have the opportunity to fight in the future to try to win this race with a very difficult car and with as complex a challenge as trying to win with this car”.

I WILL CONTINUE WHEN THE CAR IS FIXED

“Yes, we would have continued wanting to continue learning, to get to know the ‘Empty Quarter’ a little bit and try to win a stage, which is what we are trying to do”.

I WOULD LIKE TO SAY THESE STEPS TO IMPROVE SHOCK ABSORBERS

“Yes. In fact, today Mattias (Ekström) tried another set up of shock absorbers that seemed to work better and for this reason, when you are running a bit under pressure to fight without winning, you have options to do the things that you cannot do. dare to do during a race under normal conditions if you are fighting for something important, and that also helps you to do the important tests and trials” .

EVEN HUNGER NEXT YEAR?

“I always say that when a Dakar is finished, a period of personal reflection begins, where one has to analyze everything a little bit, how it went and I always say the same thing, now my period of reflection begins and returns home to think , to recover these few weeks that you always need after a Dakar, and more if it is a bit messy like this, and will have time to make plan and also see what Audi wants to do, what plans there are for the future and will have time to decide. Luck… or the good and bad of a Dakar has time, you have a year, but it’s true you only have one chance a year and time flies”.

UPGRADE THE CAR

“During this period of reflection, we also talk about data analysis, where we’ve gone well, what we’re lacking… but I honestly believe there’s a lot to learn, no not only by Audi, but by other parties and in that Performance Balance you have to analyze many things”.

THEY LEAVE THIS WEDNESDAY

“I plan to go home tomorrow.”

POSITIVE POINTS

“We started the rally well. For us, the broken kneecap, which was unexpected and left us a little confused, because nobody in the team expected it … it came at a time when we were leading the race and also leading that stage, and getting of time to Nasser at that stage. That really turned us off. But I think we have come at a good pace. Like yesterday, without the speed limit problem we could have won another stage. I think we did well but things didn’t go our way and they didn’t go our way. And from that day we had to go there… the Dakar is a race that is won more by defending than by attacking”.

CUT DUNES

“The dunes have infinities. We passed 70,000 during the rally and today I obviously misjudged the speed, I thought there was no hole at the back (dune). In fact, two meters to the left there was none, and two meters to the right there was. . It’s my fault and no one else’s.”