The first time the caravan of Dakar landed in Saudi Arabia, in 2020, won Carlos Sainz. The tour of the newly opened headquarters received a lot of criticism then, because the stages were very fast, with hardly any navigation. The change of location had not left much time to make the layout. And in those areas, the Spanish always revives his nickname of Matador. The following year, in 2021, the panorama changed radically, and the race noticed it, with continuous loss of its participants. One of the main affected was Sainz, that viralized that image turning on the same axis with his co-pilot Lucas Cruz. The Madrilenian complained bitterly then: “It cannot be that every day everyone is getting lost.” And it has done it again now, already in 2022, with identical arguments, after yielding more than two hours in the first stage: “If so many people have been wrong, there must be something wrong … We are not all idiots.” Sainz fell into the same trap this Sunday that he hunted a good part of the vehicles in the penultimate point of passage. It was a sneak peek.
Logically, each pilot manifests himself as he has done in the film. Sure that Nasser Al-Attiyah, who has left the career practically sentenced with his crushing victory, Y Sebastian loeb, the only one who endured the downpour, 12 minutes later, they are of a totally different opinion than their rival. The Dakar combines speed with navigation and mechanics, and who handles the three ingredients with more skill, gathers more ballots to achieve success. Here the most complete and the most regular wins. Even so, Sainz is a veteran in the prestigious raid, a qualified voice, and the organization should take note of their criticism, at least when wondering if it is really worth running out of competition, with almost all the fish already sold, after only two days in the fray.