David Castera: “I will be proud to attend a start of the Dakar with only electric motors or other innovative solutions”


David Castera, director of the Dakar, is happy a few days before the start of the 44th edition (January 1-14) which offers a field of 750 competitors. For CNEWS, he confides and also evokes the electric / hybrid challenge that awaits the famous rally-raid.

How did you manage to innovate in terms of the layout?

It’s not very complicated in a country like Saudi Arabia. The country is as big as France, it offers a lot of deserts, almost 90% desert. It is therefore quite easy for us to renew ourselves as we did in Africa and South America. And I think that this country, with its size and this desert, will offer us still very different things for several years if we stay there.

Why not cross the neighboring countries?

It’s true that we started this from the start, but the Covid has blocked us a bit and the country restrictions are so different from one to another. It’s so hard to cross borders with testing all over the place. As long as the Covid is there, our desires to go to neighboring countries will be further restricted.

This is the third edition in Saudi Arabia, before the race what is your assessment?

We are very satisfied. And especially the participation before leaving. It is really a great satisfaction. It is one of the biggest Dakar which will start. The Dakar still attracts a lot of people and we are proud to demonstrate once again that sport comes first. Some may have found an “African” connotation that they like. It’s very special as a year, we are still in the Covid period, but I believe that it brings all the same positive among the engaged, we are happy on that side.

With the efforts made by Saudi Arabia in terms of inclusion and sport, are you satisfied to have installed the Dakar there?

What is certain is that Saudi Arabia has a desire to open up through sport and as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar did before it. We see that the country is changing every day. We are rather very happy with this development. But especially concerning the layout, I think that it is a technical choice for us, with so many deserts and spaces, it is a ground of expression which corresponds perfectly to the sport which we practice. And that was the goal.

A new 100% electric / hybrid category is arriving in 2022 with the end of heat engines in view in 2030, how do you meet this challenge?

I won’t hide from you that this is a hell of a challenge ahead of us, and that’s what makes this job so fascinating because you have to question yourself. This is what we did with all the Dakar teams. And we see that it works. Today there are Audis. Tomorrow, there will be Toyota who will announce a comeback. There are a lot of “small teams” (unofficial teams) working on this solution. I think that thanks to our new policy, we will attract more people to the Dakar. And it is true that it is a huge bet that we decided to carry out with the FIA ​​(Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile). And I hope we will get there. I will be very proud and very happy to attend a start of the Dakar with only electric motors or other innovative solutions. And that’s the whole point. The Dakar is a huge laboratory, we don’t want to touch the DNA of the rally so the solutions we find will be real solutions that will allow the technology and the world of tomorrow to evolve.





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