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 | Dakar Rally 2013: Al Attiyah - "Must accept that things like this happen".
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The success Nasser Al-Attiyah and Carlos Sainz have tasted in their sporting careers has not been achieved by standing still. Therefore it’s no surprise to hear the Qatar Red Bull Toyo Rally Team duo are already planning for success at 2014 Dakar.
This year’s edition of the Dakar came to a premature end for both Nasser and Carlos following strong starts for the Team pair. Despite an early exit from the 2013 Dakar there were many positives to take out of the Team’s debut at the desert classic. The highlight of the race was seeing the Buggy car driven by Nasser and Carlos win five of the eight Dakar Stages it completed.
At the team briefing called by Nasser following his own retirement from the race the Qatari thanked the whole crew for their hard work up against a five-month time constraint ahead of the Dakar. Nasser also stated that his ambition for the 2014 Dakar is to formulate a strategy for the Qatar Red Bull Rally Team to win the race.
Nasser and Carlos are both former Dakar Rally champions and so are their respective co-drivers Lucas Cruz and Timo Gottschalk. The team now have a year to work on the car development project that has already delivered five Dakar Stage wins and brought a lot of useful information for future analysis. With a committed crew ready to carry on their great work towards the goal of Dakar victory it looks like exciting times ahead for the Qatar Red Bull Rally Team.
Nasser Al-Attiyah: "What happened was unfortunately but this is the Dakar and you must accept that things like this happen. Our car was so new and the team had only been together for five months."
"Despite having such a short period of time to prepare we still managed to win five of the eight stages we completed. What we achieved at the 2013 Dakar with the Qatar Red Bull Rally Team was really remarkable and I’m so proud to have been a part of it."
"I’m not the type of guy to get angry about the bad luck we had at this race. As a sportsman you can only do your best when you come to compete and I believe I did the best I could at this race. Everybody on our team did such a great job and they can all be very proud of their efforts."
"Now we can afford to think more long term and take the time we need to make improvements to our car. I’m confident that we can come back next year and compete for victory together with Carlos."
Carlos Sainz: "It was a big disappointment that we were unable to bring our cars over the finish line but on reflection we can still be proud of the team’s performance. We showed that even with such a limited time for testing we could still deliver stage victories at the Dakar Rally."
"At the 2013 Dakar we demonstrated that we have built a serious car and put together a dedicated team. We have two former Dakar winning drivers working together in order to keep this ambitious project on track. We have all the tools we need to start planning for next year’s Dakar and we can set the bar even higher for 2014."
"We came to the 2013 Dakar believing that our Buggy had great potential and the number of stage successes we attained gave us further proof. Now we can study all the information we acquired during this experience at the Dakar and use it to come back with an improved car. I have won the Dakar once and I would love to do it again with the Qatar Red Bull Rally Team."
2013/01/22 | 14:37 CET | ARTICLE: MR/HS/RED BULL
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