Dakar Rally
After the breakup with Nasser Al-Attiyah, Mathieu Baumel breaks the silence: “We have to think about the future”
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Rally-Raid
Castera responds to Quandt’s accusations: “I find it a little shocking”
David Castera is the Director of the Dakar. © Julien Delfosse / DPPI
The masterstroke of Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel in the finale of the first stage of the Dakar 2021 is having trouble moving over to Audi's side. Indeed, Sven Quandt, the boss of the Q Motorsports operating team, made a cryptic statement to Spanish television TVE:
💥Atención a lo que insinúa el director deportivo de Audi en el Dakar, Sven Quandt:
“It is gracious that only a coach (Al-Attiyah) has the ability to meet the correct road”.
Las declaraciones al completo👇
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- Teledeporte (@teledeporte) January 2, 2022
" It is quite funny than just one car (The Toyota d’Al-Attiyah) could have taken the right path. We believe they benefited from additional information (compared to the road book), otherwise it was impossible to drive like that. »
David Castera wanted to react this Monday, January 3 in the Al Qaisumah bivouac. “I find it a bit shocking to make such serious accusations, especially when there is no proof. There must be a lot of frustration (from Sven Quandt).
We have been working hard for three to four years to preserve the confidential side of the journey. The color road book (already highlighted) and the road book installed on a tablet are measures taken in this direction. »
The road book is also distributed to all crews a quarter of an hour before the start of each stage in order to eradicate the function of mapmen, these navigators who spent their nights dissecting the next day's route and thus providing a key solution in hand to the co-pilots.
“Mathew was not able to study the track before the special. If I listen to what Mr. Quandt said, we would have given him the track, but we still need to be able to follow it during the stage. This would mean have a phone and a GPS. He doesn't have any of that in his car. »
Irrefutable proof of the innocence of Mathieu Baumel is provided by the on-board surveillance cameras for two years in the Dakar vehicles, at the request of David Castera. “Since Sunday evening, I asked all my teams to clear the area of the stage where everyone had made a mistake, and nothing compromising was found. The quality of the images is optimal, I am very comfortable with that. »
Perhaps Sven Quandt's quiet anger was provoked by the misfortunes of his three Audi RS Q e-tron hybrids (poor mechanics at Peterhansel, gardening in order for Sainz and Ekström).
Medhi Casaurang
Passionate about the history of motorsport across all disciplines, I learned to read thanks to AUTOhebdo. At least that's what my parents tell everyone when they see my name inside!
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JEAN MICHEL LEFEBVRE
03/01/2022 at 08:01 a.m.
Surprising from the representative of a brand that has cheated for a long time (dieselgate) it's a bit surreal!