Assist in person at a stage of Dakarknowing their pilots and accessing all vehicles participating in the rally is a luxury that ABC had access from Dacia’s hand, which competed with a team composed of three … cars in ultimate piloted by Nasser al-Attiyah (five times winner of the test), Sébastien Loeb (nine times world champion) and Cristina Gutiérrez (Winner in Challenger in the 2024 edition). And to solve all the doubts that arose and allow us to understand much better the sensations and complications that pilots live during the hardest race in the world, Dacia He gave us a vehicle to enjoy Saudi Arabia’s dunes and check the difficulty of driving on the sand of a desert.
The class began in Bisha, where the Prologue and the 48 -hour marathon stage was played. If you attach to the adapted SUV, with your prepared controls and the tablets and maps installed in the co -driver’s position already impressed, see by your side Thierry Delli-Zotti I got you fully into adventure. At 60, Delli-Zotti accumulates a great experience in Rallies and was co-pilot of José María Serviá in 1999, with which he achieved three stage victories with Schlesser-Renault.
Admiration for co -pilots
He French co -pilot It begins its masterclass with the explanations about the configuration of the vehicle, the benefits of the SUV and how to act in such a novelty for us as the sand. The metallic taste that generates all fear of a new adventure intermingles in the palate with the security to have an experienced travel companion next to. When turning the starter key there is no turning back. The desert, infinity, opens before our eyes with the aim of reaching a fictitious goal by emulating Al-Attiyah, Loeb or Cristina Gutiérrez, looking for us from co-pilotwhich will tell us where to travel without knowing what is beyond.
Admiration towards Edouard Boulanger, Fabian Lurquin and Pablo Morenothe three co-drivers of the Dacia team, when listening to the indications of Thierry Delli-Zotti. Thanks to Galo one understands that the pilot gives gas and handles the steering wheel as if he were playing the blind chicken, letting himself be guided by the desert. Although, yes, you should know how to maneuver so that the vehicle Do not turn around Or prevent it from being stranded in the sand, something we live in our own meats.
The ABC editor tries to survive the Saudi desert dunes
ABC
«The regulation indicates that there is a limit speed that cannot be exceeded in any of the cases during the dispute of a race. To keep safety under control, the FIA imposes a maximum of 170 km/h for ultimate and stock carsancient T1 and T2, while in the Challenger, T3, it is 135 km/Hy in SSV, T4, the limit is in 125 km/h, ”explains Delli-Zotti. But not even if we will reach that speed. It seems easy to see Carlos Sainz or Laia Sanz Circular to all rag through the desert, but security is one of the priorities of this editor when the car skids the minimum that the accelerator is stepped on.
“Accelerates, accelerates,” Delle-Zotti shouts when facing a dune. The screams in the rear seat intermingle with adrenaline. Markel de ZabaletaPress Chief of Dacia Spain, and the journalist Miguel Ángel del Pozo They are my adventure partners. The prudence (and a certain fear) acts, forces to lift the foot of the accelerator and the car sinks into the sand. First lesson learned after having to go down, unearth And push the car back to undertake the dune again: you never have to slow the rhythm when ascending by a mound of sand.
The boldness and excess of confidence teaches us the second lesson when we rammed a Duna cut At excessive speed and, after overcoming the edge and look at the cornice, the car is about to overturize when practically perpendicular to the floor with the ground in the sliding face. Even DelliTti relies on the dashboard while exclaiming: “Frein, Frein!” (Stop, stop!, In French). The adventure has a happy ending although Zabaleta ensures me to have seen the three plugs with the scythe while the well releases a nervous laugh.
Driving on the desert one also understands the fixation of some pilots for not opening the way and looking for strategies To waste time and go in intermediate areas the next day. It is much easier to drive through the roderas that have opened other vehicles or follow the traces that are seen in the desert sand, knowing that there will be no unforeseen obstacles that appear when we sail on virgin terrain. The adventure allows us to understand the vicissitudes and difficulties of the Rally pilots and the merit that the Dakar has. Delli-Zotti smiles. For this editor has been an odyssey, for him a quiet day.
#art #piloting #Dakar #rally #dunes
