Jesus Calleja (Leon, 56 years old) and Óscar Fuertes (Madrid, 47 years old) They have come together for a common good, to create a team with which to compete together in the Dakar in a sustainable way. They will do it in the Astara Team, each with a buggy Century renamed 01 Concept (one of the best in its category), powered by e-fuel and together with Edu Blanco and Diego Vallejo, his co-drivers. A Spanish project that was born with the ambition to make noise and that both explain in AS.
How do you experience your return to the Dakar after a year of absence?
—Jesús Calleja .: Very happy, first because there is already a new normal and you can recover the things we did before, and then because I think we have set up the best one hundred percent Spanish rally team in car history, and we have a machine that is in the top two buggys. They are major words. We have everything that a great team has, we have Oscar as a partner and it is all very emotional, being able to make this story in the Dakar, which is undoubtedly the most interesting and vibrant race of the engine.
—Óscar Fuertes: With great enthusiasm. COVID-19 stopped us all and we bet not to go in such a difficult year, but we maintained the illusion and began to work on this project. It has been evolving and that year of hiatus helped us to put it together.
—How did this project come about?
—JC: We want to compete, it’s human condition. I want to improve. When I get into something I want to be the best I can be, and I still have a good room for improvement, and I can only do that if I have experience and a good team and car. I’ve been on Overdrive for three years now and I needed something different.
-OR. F .: Basically this starts because Jesus and I understood that what we have found in the Dakar we don’t like and we started looking for it. I knew this type of car and from there we understood more parameters such as sustainability and we looked for a team, sponsors … I think we are with the best, we have an ambitious and sustainable project over time, this project goes beyond this Dakar, to about three years.
—Jesus, how do you find the gap between so much program recording to dedicate yourself to this?
—JC: That is the handicap. If I had more hours of training, I would be better off. Even so, I remember that I came back from a trip, I got into the car in Baja Aragón without knowing how it worked, I had to learn as I went and I won my category. We were very strong without having done a kilometer before with the car. I adapt very quickly, things that have a motor are very good for me. Then we did a week-long test in Tunisia and I was excited to see the adaptation so good and how it went. Building a team of this size has not been easy.
—Oscar, what happened to the SsangYong project in which you were so established?
-OR. F .: Astara is SsangYong’s parent company in Spain and the project has been transformed. I have a lot to thank you because if we are here it is thanks to your support. We wanted to make a bigger team and from the beginning we were clear that we wanted two cars because doing it with one has many risks. We started working with Jesus a year ago and have found all the support and trust.
—We saw them delighted with the tests they did in Tunisia. How will the car get to the Dakar?
—JC: This Dakar is going to be made up of dunes and this car can save you all. It is a beast. Regarding the Toyota? I prefer the reliability of that one, because whatever you do you don’t break, in the buzzing field it is almost unbeatable and it is very complete in all aspects. But we realized that buggys They are staying up and the one in Arabia is a Dakar of buggy.
-OR. F .: We arrived with a car that has been well proven in terms of reliability and with a fuel that we have carried out the necessary tests but which is always unknown. We have high expectations and hopes to learn from him. The car behaves very well. Compared to the SsangYong? This one has all the bodywork is carbon fiber, it has a more powerful engine, a reinforced gearbox, a different aerodynamics, it is much lower … There are many things.
“What can you do with this car?”
—JC: You have to keep your feet on the ground. The great drivers and teams only dedicate themselves to this, and you cannot say that you are going to make a podium with them. They are like Madrid and Barcelona, and then there are other teams that sometimes give the bell, because we are in that group of minor but important teams and that are going to say things. I would like to improve the 29th I achieved in 2020, having a better team and a better car, that is the aspiration.
-OR. F .: In the Dakar 2022 I don’t know, if we had done this year the challenge would have been to be among the top 15 because the car in its normal gasoline version already did it.
—In addition to a strong team, they have an important message of sustainability.
—JC: That is what I want to highlight. Sustainability is very simple: I take this away from nature, and I have to give it back, otherwise the balance is unbalanced. Competing is a human condition, we generate aggression to the planet and we have to try to compensate for it. We are a laboratory with wheels to test this fuel. We extract hydrogen from water and CO2 from the air, mix it with a chemical process and you have it. It is the cleanest way to compete with a fuel.
-OR. F .: It is a message that is important for all of society now. We like to run and we understand that we must make sustainable races because it is a mirror of the technology and mobility that people use. Just as we are seeing a technological transformation in street cars, it happens in competition cars. For us, e-fuel is the best solution now looking for the balance between sustainability and performance.
“And they also have good company next to each other.”
—JC: We have a very good relationship. I have learned a lot from Óscar, he is a super pilot, that I can compete by his side each with his car, with these co-drivers, the structure, SMC… I think we have put the pieces together in a masterful way.
-OR. F .: Jesús is a very easy uncle, he has an overwhelming personality and he is also a good person. He has understood the project, he is excited, happy and he likes it a lot. I think he is especially excited that it is a Spanish project.
“How do you help each other?”
—JC: No secrets. And in the race, we will help the one who is stopped until a time that does not spoil the race of the partner. We are very clear about it, it will be very easy.
-OR. F .: That’s right, we will help each other as much as possible.
– What headline would you like to read once the Dakar is over?
—JC: For me, Calleja ends up in the top 25. That’s talking about the first division because they are all professional drivers. That would be a wonderful headline.
-OR. F .: I would feel satisfied understanding that I have done the best I know how to do and if there is also a good result, the better. You can never know. We have to be careful, but also ambitious. If you can make a stage among the top ten, the next thing is to repeat it, and if you can, the next thing is to stay among them.
“Jesus, have you discussed this plan with your Asturian friend?”
—JC: Yes, Fernando (Alonso) He is promptly informed of the tests, of the videos, we exchange impressions, he tells me, he comments on it …