According to his many years' experience in Dakar, Zhou Yong, a famous driver, analyzed the environment of the Saudi version and the South American version of Dakar, hoping to help more friends who have dreams of Dakar understand Dakar. Willing to communicate and make progress with more fans.
The 2020 Dakar Rally ended in Saudi Arabia, and Spanish star sainz of MINI team won the championship. From Africa to South America to Saudi Arabia, Dakar has always been the dream venue for off-road vehicle drivers. You can already see the wonderful pictures and final results of this year's competition. However, many friends said that they were not satisfied with this and wanted to know more about the changes, difficulties, detailed events and future trends in Dakar. In order to meet everyone's requirements of doorkeeping, the member club of China Automobile and Motorcycle Association interviewed the famous racing driver Zhou Yong.
Since 2005, Zhou Yong has participated in 10 Dakar Rally, setting a record twice, and won the 13 rd place in the automobile group in 20 15, breaking the best result of China drivers for five years. Ten Dakar races made Zhou Yong the only China driver in Dakar elite club. At present, we are committed to promoting racing culture and training new people for China racing. At the same time, Zhou Yong congratulated Han Wei on making a new breakthrough in this competition! Frankly speaking, the "record" is a record to surpass, which will inspire more China drivers to challenge higher goals, which is also the inevitable trend of the sustainable development of China racing.
Zhou Yong has three years' experience in Dhaka, Africa and ten years' experience in South America. Besides taking part in the competition in person, he also led many students to realize the dream of Dakar. From Africa to South America, and then to Saudi Arabia, through careful observation and comparative analysis of the first Saudi version of Dakar, there are too many things to say. Today, he will analyze the potential changes brought about by changes in rules, track layout and geographical environment.
Teach cross-country "five degrees" rule? Help drivers quickly identify long-distance cross-country races.
Taking part in Dakar, especially in view of the complex and changeable environmental characteristics in South America, I summed up Zhou's "five-degree" judgment method, which established a reference basis for the operation and management, car tuning and driver adaptation training of Yongmotorcade for many years. These five degrees are "length, temperature, humidity, height and speed", which are shared with cross-country sports enthusiasts who need it today.
Length, the longer the race mileage, the greater the difficulty, and the higher the requirements for the driver team;
The higher the temperature, the greater the physical consumption of the driver and the more difficult it is to control the high temperature resistance of the car. On one occasion, the team members found that the ground was still nearly forty degrees at six or seven o'clock in the morning, and it was conceivable what the temperature would be in the desert at noon.
Wet, frequent rainstorms, muddy paths and even sudden floods in some parts of South America are full of crises and challenges. I remember that the sudden flood in Dakar, South America disturbed the course of the race more than once, and sometimes I saw the scene that President Dakar jumped out of the helicopter and parked his car on the track to cancel the stage, mainly to avoid the danger of drivers.
Altitude: Dakar, South America often competes on the plateau at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters to 4,500 meters. At first, occasionally one or two stages were on the plateau. Later, even the competition had to stay overnight for four or five days at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters. In addition to the lack of power in the car, racers and maintenance personnel will also rest because of their great reaction. Conditional teams will arrange road oxygen inhalation before the competition, but oxygen inhalation equipment cannot be brought into the track because of safety regulations.
The design speed of the track, that is, the rhythm of the stage, tests the experience and control of the racers here.
It is not difficult to see that these changes in the environment will have an impact on the game. The more frequent switching between five degrees, the higher the degree, the stronger the suddenness and the greater the difficulty of the game. Participants' competition is based on their understanding of the characteristics and rules of the project.
In addition to the "five-degree" judgment method of the environment, there are multi-dimensional experience accumulation such as fatigue (car+people), adaptability, cooperation and organizational judgment, and mopeds and motorcades grow rapidly in constant practice.
Zhou Yong's "five-degree" judgment method is helpful for drivers to make stage analysis. As the saying goes, details determine success or failure. Today, I also used "five degrees" to analyze the Dakar rally.
After the reorganization of the internal management structure, the shrewd and professional Dakar Organizing Committee held the Dakar competition in Saudi Arabia for the first time. Combining the previous organization experience in Africa and South America, the competition structure was optimized to adapt to the local resources and regional characteristics, and more consideration was given to the contestants and teams on the premise of ensuring the wonderful competition and controlling the safety. Look at the following set of data: in 2020, the total length of the event is about 7800 kilometers, the stage is 5000 kilometers, and the driving section is 2800 kilometers, which is about 2000 kilometers less than the traditional layout. The mileage of the maintenance service team is only 4200 kilometers, which is greatly reduced compared with the tradition, which reduces the operating pressure of the service team and pays more attention to the maintenance and guarantee of the car. The competition was changed from the traditional 14 stage to 12 stage (20 19 only has 10 stage). Reuse several camps in the competition, so that one camp can complete the competition for two or three days.
With regard to the change of length, the driving section is shortened. Some people say that if the mileage of the stage has not changed, the game will not have any big impact. Is that really the case? Zhou Yong said: When I first started to compete in Dakar, I often said, "If you want to compete well, you must eat well! Have a good sleep! " . As we all know, cross-country race is the most uncertain event in automobile sports. Cross-country race is about the team's efficiency and adaptability in each link in unit time. When racers and workers have enough rest and sleep time, enough car maintenance time, shorter time to write road books, good judgment and low probability of mistakes will all be favorable factors for the competition.
The organizing committee preset the speed limit in the GPS control system. Generally, it is not allowed to exceed the speed of110 km/h. When approaching the speed of 105, the car will give a deafening alarm, and the team will be disqualified for speeding for three times. After the race stage, racers want to go back to the camp to have a rest and repair their cars early, also to prevent accidental speeding. Drivers endured the stimulation of the alarm and the throttle was deadlocked for several hours. The driving part is another exercise in the competition ... the long driving section can't make the racers relax in time. ......
Imagine that the number of driving roads is reduced by 2000 kilometers, which is equivalent to 23.5 hours of driving time according to the average driving speed of 85 km/h. The traditional average daily sleep in Dakar is only 6 hours (if it can be controlled well), which is equivalent to nearly four days of sleep. Even if two race days are missing, you can still get more than 1 hour of sleep every day, and the recovery time of the car will increase accordingly.
In addition, in the past, the trains in Dakar started very early, and it was common to get up at three or four o'clock in a hurry. Motorcycle group started earlier than automobile group, which is more difficult and dangerous. I remember once we set off before dawn in the plateau stage, and soon learned that a motorcyclist had a traffic accident and died after colliding with the opposite car. Later, people who know the situation said that high reaction and poor sleep quality other than traffic factors will affect people's judgment and reaction ability. This year, the departure time of the car group is relatively delayed, 7: 30, 8: 30 or even 10: 30 .............................................................................................................................., which is a great progress in the competition design of the organizing committee. According to the changes of the current events and environment, adjust the event design, maintain safety and ensure the wonderful events. This is Dakar.
Let's talk about humidity, temperature and altitude first. In pampas grassland of South America, the track is often muddy due to heavy rain, and even some tracks are damaged by floods. The road surface has changed a lot. Road books have to be revised a lot every day, and navigators even have to work until midnight. This year, some stages in Dakar, Saudi Arabia only distributed colored road books in the morning. Pilots can rest as easily as pilots. Although he can't know the information in the road book in advance, resting is more beneficial than going into battle the next day.
In the Akatama desert, there is no water on hot air and dry roads. Sometimes it goes from hot and dry to rainstorm and flood in one day. Another day, the stage started near zero on the plateau of 4 thousand meters, and the race ended at the seaside in winter and summer.
The plateau area near the north-central area has brought a high response to vehicle power and people, as well as the impact on climate and temperature. In the next few years, I even competed on the plateau for four or five consecutive days. Hundreds of players and staff showed the difficulty of the competition, which was a challenge to my health. This rich environment, temperature and humidity, and the change of stage rhythm are the biggest characteristics of South America. The environment in Saudi Arabia this year is very similar to that in Dakar, Africa in the first season, without the interference of floods and plateaus. The Dakar stage in Africa has to go through five or six countries (the South American version has to go through three countries at most), which requires higher racing rhythm and programming time for racers, but it undoubtedly consumes valuable time. The Dakar competition in Saudi Arabia is relatively pure without these things consuming energy and time, and the rhythm of the competition is more like the combination of WRC and Dakar.
Various factors lead to the change of the proportion of regional players, and the competition of top players is reduced.
20 19 and Dakar in 2020 will be held independently in one country. Moreover, from the original two-week 14 stage to 10 and 12 stage, we don't know the reasons for the changes in the number of cars and the proportion of models in Dakar. Looking back at the racing models in Dakar a few years ago, take the data of the first team as an example: at that time, the champion team X-raid had 65,438+00-65,438+02 cars a year, and competitor OverDrive served about 65,438+03 Toyota cars. The two top teams have a total of 25 four-wheel drive cars. At that time, before Peugeot returned to Dakar, it was mainly four-wheel drive, and there were seven or eight competitive four-wheel drive models, Mitsubishi of Brazil, Mitsubishi of Europe and Renault. In addition, several two-wheel drive vehicles that can kill nearly the top ten, there are about 35 car groups in the first two groups, and the complexity of the South American environment makes the uncertainty out of the chart.
After the event moved to Saudi Arabia, the layout of teams and drivers was reshuffled, and the economic situation in South America was unstable. Prior to this, several South American masters who participated in the top ten had only been to terranova. This year, the X-raid team MINI has 6 cars, and the Toyota team has 8 cars. These two teams are nearly half as few as they were then. The Peugeot factory team has disappeared, and our favorite Loeb has not appeared. On the contrary, fresh blood F 1 star Alonso came. Nani Rome doesn't seem to play well in driving the Baowo car. Depre went to open the SSV team, but the Middle East experts didn't come at all.
This year's track design is still not cool, but the familiar Dakar figure is less, which makes the fierce competition decline. Of course, the first group is still inextricably linked. Thankfully, Saudi Arabia hosted the Dakar race, which brought convenience to our China drivers' dream of Dakar and ushered in a historic explosion in the number of participants. China's Sego Lei Lei won the best record in the history of automobiles and motorcycles. This also encourages more China people who have dreams of Dakar to fight with dreams and awe!
Analyze the changes of this year's competition from the perspective of human environment. Because the customs in Arab countries are different from those in the west, the organizing committee of the tournament tries to avoid the ceremony of men and women sticking their faces. In addition, there are few alcoholic beverages such as beer in the competition camp, so when you return to the camp at night, you need to celebrate, communicate and communicate, and there is no wine. Of course, it's good not to drink, as long as champagne is sprayed at the end.
No matter where Dakar is held, it will be wonderful. Zhou Yong believes that the newly appointed president David will take this activity to a more professional and people-oriented level. Looking forward to the peak of Dakar competition! At that time, there were more than 0/50 cars/KLOC-0, 250 motorcycles and nearly 0/00 trucks, and the total number of drivers reached more than 850. This year, there are more than 300 cars and more than 500 participants in Dakar. There is reason to believe that this activity is a complete success and the future can be expected!
T3 is the future trend? Hoping to return to Dakar
Having participated in Dakar in South America for ten years in a row, Zhou Yong didn't come to the scene this year, but he analyzed the situation of Dakar in Saudi Arabia with his rich experience for many years. Watching the game through video, as well as the game data and proportion released by official website, studied the above directions.
Zhou Yong also found that we saw 45 SSVs taking part in this year's Dakar, which is the most fashionable T3 light off-road racing group besides T 1 and T2 cars. Although the total number of cars is close to previous years, the proportion of T3 cars has increased rapidly.
Through the change of the number of entries, it can be concluded that T3 will become more and more popular in the future. Because the cost of T 1 is too expensive, although T 1 can compete for full performance, but the cost and service fee are high, it is not a model that can support the dream of Volkswagen racing. Motorsport enthusiasts are likely to aim more at T3 models in the future, and even surpass T 1 car group in the number of entries in the future. In the new regulations, SSV four-wheel drive models of Bombardier, Polaris and Yamaha are classified into T4 Group, and T3 Group will form an independent group in the future, forming an independent camp headed by Steenbok(STB).
Steenbok 19(T3) made its debut in China during the tour around the tower in May, 20 19, and then made a performance test in five desert areas in China. Finally, in order to test the actual combat effect, together with the strategic partner Kaishan Brand, "Kaishan T3 Brave Team" participated in the China section of the Silk Road with a total length of about 2,500 kilometers in July, and defeated all T3 opponents from France and Russia in the final stage and won the domestic T3 championship trophy.
In 2020, Steenbok20 brand new four-wheel drive T3 racing car will be launched soon, which will be divided into four-wheel drive version and two-wheel drive version. There are two configurations of automatic gear and sequential gear, which are cost-effective to meet the needs of domestic races, FIA registered models meet the needs of international races, and riders can customize them according to their own needs. Welcome fans to test drive at the Braves base.
Finally, I wish China motorsport all-round development and prosperity in the new year, and achieve more excellent results in domestic and international competitions.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.