Image: Audi
Carlos Sainz the Elder Ä. (Father of the Ferrari F1 driver) has previously won the Dakar Rally with Peugeot, Mini and Volkswagen in his long off-road career and has what it takes to get into a new program and develop it into a winner of this race. In the first year in which Audi used a hybrid-electric series-production machine in the long-distance rally raid for the first time, Sainz does not see the regulations in such a way that the e-tron can compete on an equal footing with its pure gasoline counterparts.
The rally planned to redesign the T1 category to not only allow hybrid machines to compete on speed, but also to give them the upper hand. As the first company to enter this new era of the T1, Audi was interested in helping to develop these regulations. It suggested that T1 have the same onboard tire inflation system as the 4×4 class, plus allowing for a larger chassis, wheels and tires from the buggy class, and slightly more travel than the 4×4 class. If you want to build a new top that is faster but not much faster than the current top, that’s not too much to ask.
Well, Toyota and Prodrive felt this was one bridge too far and vetoed some of those changes. In conversation with Motorsport.com, that’s what Sainz says:
“What we cannot ignore is that a regulation that gives priority to these hybrid electric motors will end up having the same or less power and more weight.
“We will see that very quickly and unfortunately it has put the project at a disadvantage. We’ll have to see how the BoP [Balance of Performance] is, but right now I’m not very optimistic.
“What would be cars with a little more power than the others, with a little more suspension travel. Finally, [we got] neither more travel nor more power. Maybe less, because of the way they measure it, and more at 150 kg. “
Well, racing is racing, and a lot of things can happen out there in the dunes. It is entirely possible that the Audi’s additional weight and lack of suspension travel could be an advantage. Huh, just kidding, this is going to be a nightmare. But it’s entirely possible that luck is on the side of the three-car Audi team and the Toyotas and Prodrives have weird breakdowns or navigation errors or something. Never count a three-time Dakar champion even if they are in a car that is likely to be slower.
