The two pilots agree: “We believe that there has not been a 100% Spanish team in the Dakar with more potential than this one, It is of the highest level. “And if they say it so convinced, surely it is not by chance. Jesús Calleja and Óscar Fuertes join forces to face the next Dakar as partners in the Astara Team, a newly formed structure but with ambitious goals. Because not only do they want to be competitive in the desert, but they want to do it with sustainability as a flag.
How? With the fuel that they will use in the 01 Concept, as they have renamed the buggy of Century (a reference within its category T1.3) that have adapted to be powered by e-fuel, a synthetic fuel produced from hydrogen and CO2. “We want to show that we are going to be the most sustainable team on the Dakar”, Calleja says during the presentation in Madrid attended by AS, and Fuertes adds: “We wanted to compete with the best possible solution: sustainability and performance. We can run and be sustainable.”
If the mix works, they can do a good job in Arabia, because they have already seen in a test week in Tunis that the car is responsive and competitive. “It is the best I have ever driven, I have not found fault with it. Is in the top two buggys Dakar, Mini and this one “, points out the Leonese, who won his category in Baja Aragón without having tried it before:” What a piece of car we have, without doing a test or anything, we won. “” We know that we are competitive. and that we can fight for a good final result, “says the Madrid native.
Calleja, Blanco, Fuertes and Vallejo at the presentation of the Astara Team in Madrid.
Juan Aguado (DAILY AS)
The advantage of being two
It is still too early to know how far they can go, but they have the advantage of being two cars: in one, Jesús with the Argentine Edu Blanco (with whom he already raced in 2019) and in another, Fuertes with the Galician Diego Vallejo, with the who became a partner in SsangYong. There is good chemistry between them. “The advantage of going with two cars is that we can collaborate with each other as much as possible, in the Dakar that adds a lot “, Oscar says, and his co-driver adds: “Besides, it takes away the pressure of having to finish yes or yes because there is another car, and that allows you to attack more. “
It will be Calleja’s fifth Dakar (he did the previous two with an Overdrive Toyota), the fourth for Fuertes, and after a year of absence they were clear that they wanted to be back. “Now the Dakar is even more relevant than before, we have to be there. We wanted a project as big as possible and the idea, if everything goes as we anticipated, is to have a three-year horizon. The bet is to be one more team of the greats, “they say with ambition. This is how this new Spanish team was born, with great goals and embracing a sustainable present.
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