Mattias Ekstr\u00f6m\/Emil Bergkvist (Sweden), St\u00e9phane Peterhansel\/Edouard Boulanger (France) and Carlos Sainz\/Lucas Cruz (Spain) will compete for Audi in the world\u2019s toughest rally from January 2 to 14, 2022. \u201cIt\u2019s no exaggeration to speak of a \u2018dream team\u2019,\u201d says Julius Seebach, Managing Director of Audi Sport GmbH and responsible for motorsport. \u201cSt\u00e9phane is the most successful Dakar driver of all time. Carlos is a multiple Dakar winner and World Rally champion. With Mattias, we already celebrated many Audi successes in the past. He is one of the world\u2019s most versatile drivers. In addition to a lot of speed, they are all adding an extreme amount of expertise and motivation to our team. The same goes for their co-drivers, who play an increasingly important role in the Dakar Rally.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the end, the drivers and co-drivers make the difference at the Dakar Rally,\u201d says Andreas Roos, who is responsible for the factory motorsport commitments at Audi Sport. \u201cThe fact that we will have three driver teams at the very highest level is reassuring. We can put a check mark behind this point. Now it\u2019s up to us to complete the development of our innovative car and kick off the energy revolution in cross-country rallying in January.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the Dakar Rally, teamwork and reliabilty are crucial,\u201d says Sven Quandt, team principal of Q Motorsport. \u201cYou need a well-bonded team, a super reliable car and reliable driver teams. You can\u2019t permanently drive at the limit in the Dakar Rally. The right strategy is crucial. I\u2019m very happy that we will have three renowned and strong teams competing for us. We know their qualities very well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carlos Sainz (59) is also a living legend. The Spaniard is a two-time World Rally champion (1990, 1992) and has celebrated three Dakar Rally victories to date: in 2010, 2018 and most recently in 2020 at the premiere in Saudi Arabia. \u201cEven at 59, I\u2019m still hungry, otherwise I wouldn\u2019t have taken on this new challenge,\u201d says Sainz. \u201cEven as a child, it was my dream to become a rally driver. My passion is unchanged.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Audi brand has always been something very special for \u201cEl Matador\u201d. \u201cThe Audi quattro changed the World Rally Championship forever,\u201d says Sainz. \u201cNow we are trying something similar at the Dakar Rally. The engineers have much more freedom in the Dakar Rally than in other racing series. I have full confidence in the Audi engineers and will try to help them with my experience to develop a fast and successful car. The Dakar is the ultimate challenge for an electric powertrain. It is a fantastic, extreme project. I can\u2019t wait to test the car for the first time. What I\u2019ve seen so far gives me confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sainz will share the cockpit with Lucas Cruz (46), who was part of one of his countryman\u2019s junior rally teams at the start of his career, before discovering cross-country rallying for himself. \u201c2021 is my 20th year in the sport,\u201d says Cruz. \u201cI have competed in the Dakar Rally with different drivers before Carlos asked me to work with him at Volkswagen in 2009. I would never have dreamed of doing that. A year later, we won the Dakar together for the first time and three times since then.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCarlos is super professional,\u201d says Cruz. \u201cHe only has one goal: to win. He demands that everyone else is as focused as he is: the mechanics, the engineers, the co-driver. We have a good connection. I\u2019m the calming influence in the car. Working with him is a great pleasure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cruz is also intrigued by the idea of tackling the Dakar Rally with an electrified powertrain. \u201cAudi is the first manufacturer to enter such a car,\u201d says the Spaniard. \u201cIt\u2019s important and positive for our sport to take this step and rely on new energies in the world\u2019s toughest motorsport event. It\u2019s very complicated in the Dakar Rally. Audi is daring to do something that no one has done before. It\u2019s the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mattias Ekstr\u00f6m\/Emil Bergkvist (Sweden), St\u00e9phane Peterhansel\/Edouard Boulanger (France) and Carlos Sainz\/Lucas Cruz (Spain) will compete for Audi in the world\u2019s toughest rally from January 2 to 14, 2022. \u201cIt\u2019s no exaggeration to speak of a \u2018dream team\u2019,\u201d says Julius Seebach, Managing Director of Audi Sport GmbH and responsible for motorsport. \u201cSt\u00e9phane is the most successful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[74,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2021-en","category-archive"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carlos-sainz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carlos-sainz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carlos-sainz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carlos-sainz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carlos-sainz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3954"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.carlos-sainz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3955,"href":"https:\/\/www.carlos-sainz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3954\/revisions\/3955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carlos-sainz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carlos-sainz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carlos-sainz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carlos-sainz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}