Indeed, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel did not mince words in the face of the French media present in the Saudi bivouac. The Qatari driver, leader of the event, thanked the officials for "killing the race very early" on his Instagram account.

his tricolor browser was more verbose, but his analysis is identical. Mathieu Baumel expresses his incomprehension because according to him, the acceleration data of the T1U (Audi) and T1+ (Prodrive, Toyota) taken into account by the FIA and ASO are not representative of their real performance in competition on this Dakar 2023.

“The data is something, of course, but in reality, we drove several times with them and at no time could we say that we were going at the same speed as the Audis, declares the reigning world champion. From there to say that they are still in deficit while they are the ones who drop us off… I do not quite see the principle. To add 10 horsepower to them is a lot, especially for a car which, in reality, is already faster than us. »

It's a fact, hybrid Audis have an advantage during acceleration phases, especially on sandy surfaces and in the dunes. Their electric motors give the drivers (Stéphane Peterhansel, Carlos Sainz, Mattias Ekström) an immediate response to the accelerator pedal, unlike the Toyota Hilux and Prodrive Hunter, equipped with twin-turbo petrol V6s, without an electrical system.

Mathieu Baumel continues. “Clearly this decision is to give the advantage to Audi and allow them to come back. We are in the lead but they will come back to us. It does not go in the direction of fairness as it is marked on paper in any case.

We expected quite the opposite! They may have made a mistake in the writing, right? There really is a serious problem. We rode with them again today (Wednesday). It's incomprehensible. I think they gave the win to Audi. »

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