On January 3, the 2022 Dakar Rally ended the second stage (SS2) race, Han Wei finished the day with a result of 25th place, teammates Tian Po / Du Xuanyi pulled back and finally finished 50th in the stage.
Unexpectedly blocked Han Wei Racing learned its lesson
The SS2 stage starts in Hail and ends in Yalta. The total length of the stage is 585 km, and the special stage is 339 km. The stage contains 63% sand, 10% dirt roads, and 27% dunes. Marathon stage camping was planned at AL ARTAWIYAH camp, but had to be postponed due to sudden flooding at the camp, but the SS stage race will continue. Yesterday's stage, Dakar to all the drivers to come to a down Mawei, as the world's top off-road rally, Dakar tested each car group's racing performance, pilot ability, logistics team, etc., Han Wei car group was originally planned to be steady in the first half of the race, but the accident and test often came very suddenly, the 220 group because of the weight of the car and was punished by the FIA stage penalty of 10 hours.
HanWei Racing said that since the cooperation with SMG in France in 2016, it has determined that the maintenance technicians and team staff are all Chinese, and this year's Dakar Rally has achieved that all team personnel are from China. However, on the road to internationalization, due to differences in language and thinking habits, their interpretation of the rules is not deep enough, so that they have suffered from this tragic lesson.
In the future, Hanwei Racing will devote more energy to the interpretation of the rules of the race, and will also treat each race with more caution and awe. The No. 220 Han wei/Mali car group will continue their Journey to Dakar.
SMG develops hybrid racing car Han Wei hopes to introduce it to China
For the impression of Dakar in 2022, Han Wei said that the stage is similar to last year, and the difficulty of track design is as good as ever. And since the launch of the classic group, there have been many vehicles in the camp, and this year the new energy group has been added, so the whole camp is very large. Among all these changes, Han Wei believes that the addition of Audi and the use of electric drive racing cars are the biggest highlights of this competition. "I am very concerned about this change, which is a revolutionary process for the future of Dakar."
It is worth mentioning that the Dakar official has disclosed that SMG will work with ORECA to create a hybrid car with the strength of the podium, which consumes only half the energy consumption of the current T1 car. Han Wei said that he will participate in the test of this new car, and will strive to introduce it to China in the future, because it is still in the research and development stage, and more information cannot be revealed, but "energy saving and environmental protection" will still be the theme and direction of Dakar's future.
"It's a whole new thing, and the development cost is definitely more expensive than traditional fuel racing. A whole new field, all the development is fragmented, is their own parts to develop, time-consuming and labor-intensive, it is not like the current fuel racing car has a lot of accessories can be used. In Han Wei's view, the investment of the club team in the field of new energy is difficult to compare with the fleet of automakers such as Audi, and it is reported that Audi's entire Dakar plan to invest 100 million euros.
In Dakar in 2020, Han Wei won the 10th place in the automotive group, breaking the ranking record of Chinese drivers in Dakar and opening a new door. In Dakar in 2021, Han Wei lost nearly three hours in the fifth stage and finally finished eighteenth in the car group. Han Wei also clearly realized that if Dakar wants to enter the top ten in 2022, it will be more difficult than in 2020. In particular, the large number of T1+ cars put into use, the addition of Audi, and the return of many European and American drivers from the epidemic all mean the intensity of the race.