Dacia cools Dakar expectations after debut 1-2 at Rallye du Maroc

Dacia Sandriders technical director Philip Dunabin has performed down expectations for the staff’s first run on the Dakar Rally regardless of securing a 1-2 on its debut on the Rallye du Maroc.

The Romanian producer has partnered with Prodrive to contest the World Rally Raid Championship [WR2C], together with a tilt on the Dakar starting in Saudi Arabia on 3 January, with Nasser Al-Attiyah, Sebastien Loeb and Cristina Gutierrez onboard to pilot the three-car entry.

Having headed to Morocco in October as a stay take a look at in competitors, five-time Dakar winner Al-Attiyah and Loeb secured a 1-2 regardless of struggling small points – corresponding to cooling troubles – whereas Gutierrez ran older elements to carry out length-of-life experiments.

Regardless of the sturdy end result out of the field although, Dunabin has insisted there isn’t a expectation to win at Dakar.

Requested what the goal was, Dunabin stated: “It is to do in addition to we will. There’s not a presumption on Dacia’s aspect that Dacia can are available and win straightaway.

“We clearly hope we’ve pace, what we do not know is you must do a Dakar to get expertise and to know you’ve the reliability that can take you that distance.

“So I believe to begin off, Dacia most likely thought we may go and get a run, get expertise and no matter – maybe the expectation has come up a bit due to ends in Morocco.

“However there isn’t a obligation that we ship a profitable end result straight out. If we try this, it will be nice, however there isn’t a presumption.

“We did break down, we did have struggles, it wasn’t all plain crusing. It might have appeared large however we had some challenges for certain.

“From sure views it’s like ‘you have received, job carried out, you may simply go to Dakar and that is it’ however there’s quite a lot of work to do. We nonetheless have quite a lot of vital elements to look over.”

Working by means of the checks carried out on Gutierrez’s automotive that noticed her end the Moroccan occasion 78th total, Dunabin instructed Motorsport.com: “There have been sure parts of the automotive – significantly on Cristina’s automotive – that had been used for testing and we did not change elements that we knew weren’t in nearly as good situation as they might have been.

“Why you do that’s as a result of you may go and do testing and be taught quite a lot of issues, however there’s nothing fairly like truly doing the occasions.

Dacia Sandriders, Rally del Marocco

Picture by: Motorsport.com

“So you are taking the elements you realize are most likely coming to what you assume is a traditional lifetime, you allow them on the automotive and also you go and do the Morocco rally with it as a result of that offers you the margin you’re in search of whenever you set off on the Dakar.”

Chief mechanic Alistair Gibson added: “It was actually essential for the staff that we did have some challenges on one of many automobiles.

“The automotive was the take a look at automotive, we have been doing endurance testing on that automotive anyway, we knew that, and it was stuff we needed to discover out the laborious manner.

“We additionally, after we did have just a few little challenges, how the staff reacts is basically good studying for everyone as a result of when it occurs on the Dakar, you must be sharp.”