Laia Sanz makes his debut in cars at the Dakar: "Racing with Carlos Sainz helped me a lot"

The one in 2022 will be a different Dakar for Laia Sanz (Corbera de Llobregat, Barcelona, ​​1985). After 11 consecutive editions living it on a motorcycle, he will do it for the first time at the wheel of a car. And, also, integrated into a dream team: the X-raid, winner of the last two editions with

(2020) and

(2021) as drivers. He has already competed in various events throughout the year. Now, in Saudi Arabia, he will have at his side another motorcycle rider who knows the Dakar,

, his third co-driver after having also competed together with

and

. His objective: above all, to finish the test and accumulate kilometers. Something in which the car that will drive a Mini 4x4 will have a lot to do with it. Not surprisingly, it has earned a well-deserved reputation as an indestructible mount.

How has the adaptation to cars gone? So far, it is going well. It has not been easy, although it is true that I have experienced a great improvement from the beginning of the year until now. The fact of racing with Carlos Sainz has helped me a lot and, afterwards, having been able to do the Ha'il Rally or compete in Andalusia has also been a great help. It has been a very intense year, but very good for my learning. Does it still feel a bit strange having a steering wheel instead of a handlebar in my hands? I feel like a motorcycle racer. I am getting used to the idea, and yes I am doing more things with cars, but sometimes I still have a strange feeling, yes. At the level of physical preparation,Have you had to make changes or follow different routines? In recent months we have been going from race to race and I have not been able to prepare specifically, but I have stayed in shape. For the car, in the future I will have to work on some specific things, but in Ha'il I felt very good and it is not as demanding as the bike. And in terms of posture? The first thing is to find a comfortable position on the bucket. . In Ha'il my neck was badly beaten. Perhaps that is what suffers the most with the car and what, over time, I will have to work better. After 11 years, will you miss the bike at some point in the Dakar? The sand, the team atmosphere, the teammates ... All that I will miss a lot, but, on the other hand, I am very happy for the step I have taken and there are things that I will not miss at all,like the early mornings that we hit each other, being cold in the links ... There are many things that we already saw in Ha'il the two of us, because we both saw from the motorcycle, which are very different, how to be able to say, 'uf, how warm it is It goes in here '(smiles). Now it will run with someone next to it. Will that make the experience even more enriching? It's also funny. Sharing this with someone I think will be nice. Either you fight or you end up forging a nice friendship, and I think it will be the latter. At Ha'il we had a great time, we got on very well and I think we can go very well together. Can the fact that you both have experience on the bike help you understand each other better or can it make sparks fly? It is true that sometimes it made me strange not to be reading theThere are many things that we both saw in Ha'il, because we both saw from the bike, that they are very different, like being able to say, 'Ugh, how warm it is in here' (smiles). Now he will race with someone next to him. Will that make the experience even more enriching? It's also funny. Sharing this with someone I think will be nice. Either you fight or you end up forging a nice friendship, and I think it will be the latter. At Ha'il we had a great time, we got on very well and I think we can go very well together. Can the fact that you both have experience on the bike help you understand each other better or can it make sparks fly? It is true that sometimes it made me strange not to be reading theThere are many things that we both saw in Ha'il, because we both saw from the bike, that they are very different, like being able to say, 'Ugh, how warm it is in here' (smiles). Now he will race with someone next to him. Will that make the experience even more enriching? It's also funny. Sharing this with someone I think will be nice. Either you fight or you end up forging a nice friendship, and I think it will be the latter. At Ha'il we had a great time, we got on very well and I think we can go very well together. Can the fact that you both have experience on the bike help you understand each other better or can it make sparks fly? It is true that sometimes it made me strange not to be reading theHow warm it is in here '(smiles). Now he will run with someone next to him. Will that make the experience even more enriching? It's also funny. Sharing this with someone I think will be nice. Either you fight or you end up forging a nice friendship, and I think it will be the latter. At Ha'il we had a great time, we got on very well and I think we can go very well together. Can the fact that you both have experience on the bike help you understand each other better or can it make sparks fly? It is true that sometimes it made me strange not to be reading theHow warm it is in here '(smiles). Now he will run with someone next to him. Will that make the experience even more enriching? It's also funny. Sharing this with someone I think will be nice. Either you fight or you end up forging a nice friendship, and I think it will be the latter. At Ha'il we had a great time, we got on very well and I think we can go very well together. Can the fact that you both have experience on the bike help you understand each other better or can it make sparks fly? It is true that sometimes it made me strange not to be reading theand I think it will be the second. At Ha'il we had a great time, we got on very well and I think we can go very well together. Can the fact that you both have experience on the bike help you understand each other better or can it make sparks fly? It is true that sometimes it made me strange not to be reading theand I think it will be the second. At Ha'il we had a great time, we got on very well and I think we can go very well together. Can the fact that you both have experience on the bike help you understand each other better or can it make sparks fly? It is true that sometimes it made me strange not to be reading the

, but it is something I will have to get used to and I think the fact that the two of us come on the bike will make us understand each other better. That a team like X-raid has bet on you, does it mean more pressure? More pressure, no. It's my first year, it calms me down. I'm going with a great team, with a guaranteed car, and that gives me more peace of mind. His car is a T-1 category, one notch below the T-1 + that are released this year. Is the medium-term objective to get behind the wheel of a T-1 +? The objective now is to finish this Dakar and do the best possible. In the future, I would love to, but you have to be realistic. We have a very good car to have a good first year at the Dakar and in the future, we'll see. Obviously, you have to dream, but for that I still have a long way to go: Jutta Kleinschmidt is so far the only woman who has been proclaimed the winner of the Dakar.He did it when he was 38 years old and he also came from motorcycles. Is he your role model? Jutta was one of my idols. Seeing a woman fighting the boys and that she could win the Dakar was very good. Times have changed, it's different, but he was a benchmark for me and I hope I can get closer to what he achieved. I'm starting now with cars, I'm a junior, I have to do a lot of kilometers and hopefully I have the option to do them, to grow as a driver and see how far I can go. She started racing with cars a little earlier. Is time a factor that works against you? Today, the factor of age is not so important. I have done a lot of Dakars on a motorcycle, I have that experience. If you take care of yourself, you can also extend your career a lot. I don't think I'm late, I think I'm still young to start with cars. At the Spanish level,women's sport continues to achieve great successes and has an increasing media presence. Are they achieving these successes because they are being listened to more or is it their achievements that make them more listened to? It is a mixture of everything. The media are giving it more attention and so we can better understand the great athletes that we have. It is like a chain. If we have more support, we have more options, more help and I think it's a bit of a tail-biting fish.more help and I think it's a bit of a tail-biting fish.more help and I think it's a bit of a tail-biting fish.

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