BMW Blame Organizers for Hardest Dakar Ever

BMW might have taken a blow in the Dakar Rally this year, when main driver Nasser Al-Attiyah was excluded from the race in the first week of the rally, but they are still very interested with how things are going in this year's competition. Following immense criticism from the drivers after Stage 12, X-Raid BMW team boss Sven Quandt argued that the rally organizers were the only ones to blame for the chaotic turn of events on Thursday.

Quandt insisted that the Dakar organizers should have foreseen the troubles with the dunes on the Fiambala to La Rioja route and change the road book accordingly. He was backed by Volkswagen's driver Giniel de Villiers – current leader of the overall classification – who characterized yesterday's road map as being 'pathetic'.

“I think the biggest thing is that they should know that in summer time it's different to in winter time. I'm a bit astonished, because the organisation should know a little bit better. They've done a very nice race, but at the moment there are still 90 cars and trucks (stuck) before 170 kilometres into the stage, and that's a bit too much,” Quandt was quoted as saying to the autosport.com site.

“I know there was not a lot of time from last year to this year to prepare this, but there are plenty of local people who know that in summer time it's different to winter. When I was driving here in February, my experience was that when it gets hot, the dunes are very hard to climb, they get extremely soft. I think it's unfair to a lot of competitors who will get penalties today,” added the BMW official.

BMW's Nasser Al-Attiyah had to pull out of the rally – he was excluded from the competition due to breaking the rules – after missing no less than 9 waypoints during Stage 6 of the event. At the time, he was the only BMW works driver left to race in the competition. According to Quandt, the high number of pull-outs & crashes are a consequence of “the most difficult Dakars that you have seen.

“When you've been here, you know that it is difficult because it varies between sand and gravel a lot, and you have got hard and easy parts mixing up all day. Here you are driving on hard terrain and you feel nice and comfortable, and then you have to change your driving style and that makes it difficult. I think they've learned a lot this year, and for sure they will change. I hope they will not go the opposite way and make it too soft. They have to find the right balance - have one or two hard days, but find a way that everyone can finish,” concluded Quandt.