Ricardo Leal dos Santos, is part of the Dakar winning team, the Monster Energy X-raid Team, and was accompanied by Paulo Fiúza, both on board a 2993cc and 315hp MINI All4 Racing.
Stay now with our interview:
1st – What balance do you make of this Dakar?
The balance is very positive, basically we fulfilled the main objectives of the participation, which was to win the Dakar as a team and in addition to winning, two of our riders finished first and second overall. We also wanted to evolve as riders and I think that was achieved quite well by demonstrating the time recorded in the various stages. Individually, the only point less achieved was in the final classification, which was slightly conditioned by the mishap we had in the mud. Still, the final balance is very good…
2nd – Is there potential for the team to evolve more, or is there a basic limitation in the project, namely in the car?
I think there are chances to evolve even more, several evolutions of the car are already planned. In a project like this, you have to evolve in phases and sectors, and that is what is being done. In fact, this year the difference has already been noticed...
3rd What is the best and worst moment experienced in this 2012 edition?
The worst is without a doubt the moment of mud and the best… the best is capable of being the end, when we realize that we have fulfilled the goals, we won the race as a team, and individually we won the last stage, which is fantastic as it is the our first time. But there were a lot of good moments during the race.
4th How were those two hours of agony in the 3rd stage lived?
A lot crossed my mind... Initially it didn't seem to be hopeless, I thought that when the first car helped us we would be able to get out of there without any problem, but then it wasn't the first car, it was the second, it wasn't the second, it was the third... We were watching the race slipping away and it all crossed our minds. The basic idea in these types of situations is to remain calm and think about the alternatives we have, but of course we were getting desperate as all the logical hypotheses were exhausted. In the end we managed to get there well, despite the sadness of seeing the race lost. We did our job and what we were supposed to do, are situations of a Dakar… it happened, it happened… It is necessary not to lose motivation and in the next stage return to attack.
5th – Do you feel that you could have registered a better result if not for the help to Nani Roma and Holowczyk?
Overall no, our race was affected by the initial problem and that was the biggest hurdle. Helping Nani Roma only conditioned us on the fact that if we hadn't stopped to help him that day, we were in second place in the overall standings and that's always a good thing to register, but that wasn't what conditioned the final result of the race.
6th – What did you miss the most?
From home
7th – And beyond that?
Of coffee… The problem is not even the lack of coffee, the problem is that there is no way! But despite that, this time we managed to stay 100% awake.
8th – What did you like most about this South America Dakar version?
The stages were very interesting due to the technique required, the beauty of the tracks and the monitoring of local populations. It was very good and very beautiful, it was brutal!
9th – Easier or harder than the African version of the test? Which one do you prefer?
I prefer the South American version, but the difficulty level is similar on both sides. This Dakar was much more difficult than the others we did in Africa, in my specific case, the level of the car's qualitative difference is gigantic. Last year for example, I couldn't do 2 km of holes and ditches one after the other because my car didn't allow it, this car did it without any problems. The South American version has more winding tracks, very technical parts and is much more interesting to compare because of this type of difficulty.
10th – Next adventures?
They are still to be defined, but I would like to return to Australia for Quads rally.
Paulo Fiuza to the left, Ricardo Leal dos Santos on the right
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Ricardo Leal dos Santos: Official Page
Thanks also to the people who made this interview possible.