Following his thrilling maiden Dakar Rally win in career in 2010, the Spaniard took his Volkswagen Touareg to another 3 wins last season. However, none of that will matter in Argentina and Chile throughout the next 3 weeks, argued Sainz, as he believes the key to Dakar success lies in modesty and tackling each challenge (read that day) at a time.
“Following my career in the World Rally Championship, if there is one important lesson that I learned for desert rallies then it is this: You must approach the challenges thrown up every day with the greatest respect and always remain modest,” said Sainz in an interview posted on VW's official motorsport site.
Furthermore, he addressed the challenges that lie ahead in the South American event, including stage difficulties and projected rivals.
“The dune stages in the Atacama Desert and in the Cordilleras foothills will again certainly be a unique challenge. The sand in cross country rallying represented the greatest change for me, because before I’d driven tens of thousands of kilometres on gravel.”
“Sometimes you approach towering dunes like those around Copiapó. You have to sense and read the sand exactly on every single day, and you must confront the dunes with respect. Furthermore, every driver also simply needs a little luck.”
“Even Nasser Al-Attiyah and Stéphane Peterhansel, who are in my opinion certainly the best drivers in sand, got bogged down during the 2010 Dakar Rally. If you drive a tiny bit more to the right or left you can be lucky or, in the same way, be unlucky. Nobody knows what it looks like behind the dune, which is why I have coined the phrase in our cockpit: You can’t see through the sand. Two plus two does not necessarily make four in the desert!”
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