“I don’t know if Sainz will like the roadbook this year, it will be more difficult”

David Castera, director of Dakarattended MD shortly before the start of the 2024 edition. The head of the competition promises a more complicated route, trusts in the great novelty, the 48-hour stage, and assures that the roadmap will be more complicated.

What do you expect from Dakar 2024?

I’m here to try to help everyone find what they’re looking for. What does that mean? With competitors looking for pure sport, fighting to win or for a position. Others, a personal challenge. And for others, the Dakar is a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. So, I always have to consider all these different worlds that come to do the Dakar and make sure they all finish the Dakar having found what they are looking for in this race. Therefore, I always think in terms of organization, route and general concept. And it’s not that easy, because I also have different types of vehicles like motorcycles, quads, cars or trucks. It is very difficult. Everyone is looking for their own adventure.

Last year the rain hardened the sands and if it doesn’t rain this year the sand route should be more complicated.

It will be more difficult whether it rains or not. The dunes will be a difficulty, but that’s the Dakar. I am sure the competitors will find the course challenging.

There is a lot of talk about stage 6 (January 11 and 12), which lasts 48 hours. Will it be as amazing as expected?

Yes, I think it will be spectacular, because it’s also different, something new. When everyone leaves their comfort zone, from normal things, they don’t understand, they look at you a little like (make a gesture on their face), they ask you how it’s going to be , and this and that… I think this is a moment that is important.

In this two-day phase, at the end of the first day, at 4:00 pm, the pilots must stop, wherever they are, and go to the nearest camp of the few present for that phase. There they must repair their cars without help and without consulting the classifications. And the next day, they must continue until the end. Why can’t the cars stop at the point where they landed and sleep in the same place in the middle of the desert?

Because of today’s times, it is impossible to do that. We cannot bring water to everyone and will not have everything they need. That was my first idea, but now it’s hard. I prefer to do 7 or 8 bivouacs, regroup everything and that way everything is easier.

How hard is it to work to create a race with all the Dakar DNA with the opinion of the competitors of the past, always remembering that the adventure of the first Dakars in Africa was bigger and purer? They should seek adventure, but above all, security.

I have to consider so many things that not everyone can understand. But I don’t hear this kind of criticism. Many have competed in Africa, South America and Saudi Arabia and won three dakars. And there are many new competitors who just competed in Saudi Arabia who have a different way of looking at things. There is no serious conflict in this matter.

Will the roadbook get more complicated?

The roadbook will be a little more complicated than last year. We made it difficult and then we went down a little bit, but between the bikes and the cars I would also make some differences. It will be more difficult with motorcycles than with cars because motorcycles are more towards this concept and it also allows you to slow down a little, because when motorcycle riders are looking for a point, there they are obliged to think and look a little. That helps a bit and increases safety. So they are two things together.

A few years ago there was a controversy over the difficulty of the roadbook. Carlos Sainz said it was more like a ‘gymkhana’ than a Dakar.

Navigation is part of racing. Besides, nobody likes to lose. But without navigation it’s WRC (World Rally Championship). So, it’s important that I always have the balance of all that in hand, the resistance part, the navigation part and the steering part. And I apologize if anything goes wrong… but that’s because they’re not good.

Last year, Carlos was happy with the roadbook.

Yes. Good, because it’s easier (laughs).

And this year he said it will be more difficult.

Yes. You won’t like it, you might…

Is it possible or safe?

It will be harder, that’s for sure. Whether (Sainz) doesn’t like the roadbook depends on whether he’s wrong or not. It’s always like that.

What do you expect from the fight for victory in the car category? Nasser Al-Attiyah has switched teams and will be Sébastien Loeb’s BRX teammate, no longer driving his dominant Toyota. Would that add to the excitement?

Maybe this year a young man can win. Many young people start acting out very quickly. We have three or four youngsters who have already reached T1+ (top categories of cars) and the whole panorama of drivers will change a lot, because Carlos Sainz and Stéphane Peterhansel are at the end of their lives as drivers and I’m excited to see new pilots coming in and fast.

Do you think this will be Carlos Sainz’s last Dakar?

I don’t know, I haven’t talked to him yet. Peterhansel was in a similar situation. If it’s not the last, it will be the penultimate. And today’s youth are very fast. It’s the first time in a few years that we’ve had so many young people pushing and being there and that’s very good for the discipline.

Many people do not understand that in the Dakar the drivers have a wild card that allows them to continue the race after being forced to abandon.

The ‘joker’ is not to win, it is to continue, to stay in the race. A lot of money, a lot of work goes into the Dakar and we want to give many the opportunity to continue as an experience, because in the end they will not be finishers of the Dakar and they will not reach the final podium. There is a difference, but we want to give the opportunity to live the experience to the end. No wild cards are motorcycle drivers.

Don’t you think it takes away the essence of race?

Nope. We’ve been doing this for years. They don’t have a medal at the end, that’s only for those who do the whole Dakar. And that tradition continues. If we keep that, the DNA of Dakar remains intact.

In 10 years how will the Dakar develop?

There are many changes. We are working a lot on thinking about zero carbon footprint. Today we will launch the Mission 1,000 category in this Dakar 2024, which will be the Dakar of tomorrow, a clean Dakar, if there is a vehicle hydrogen, electric or I don’t know. My dream is to see the starting line of the Dakar full of clean cars and this is the job for the Dakar of tomorrow.