FIA News: Red Bull star's DISQUALIFICATION explained in official statement

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Red Bull star's DISQUALIFICATION explained in official FIA statement

Carlos Sainz senior was not allowed to carry on

Originally written by Sam Cook. This version is a translation.

Saturday 11 January 2025 22:00

The disqualification of a Red Bull athlete from a key event on the motorsport calendar has been officially explained in an FIA statement.

Two favourites for the 2025 Dakar Rally win - Carlos Sainz senior and nine-time World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb - were forced to withdraw in the early stages by the FIA.

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Motorsport legend Sainz senior is 62 years old, but managed to claim victory in the 2024 event, his fourth Dakar Rally win.

Sainz senior also recently made his debut in a Ferrari F1 car, driving around the Fiorano track with his son as a leaving present from the team to the Spaniard.

Carlos Sainz senior is a four-time Dakar Rally champion

Sebastien Loeb was also not allowed to carry on in the race

Sainz senior's horror Dakar rally

He was able to finish the stage, but he Loeb - who had a similar accident in stage three - were told by the FIA that they would not be allowed to continue in the event.

Sainz's Ford Raptor suffered extensive damage to its roll cage due to the incident, and now the FIA have explained that this was one of the key reasons for the Red Bull athlete's disqualification.

"It's very simple, as soon as a car has an accident on the stage, it has to be checked by the commissaries before it can be repaired," FIA’s cross-country director Jerome Rousel told media at the event.

"And if the roll cage is damaged, it's the same rule in all championships for many years, for decades, as soon as the roll cage is damaged, you can't continue.

"In theory, you can repair it, but repairing a chassis like that is not an easy thing to do overnight in the middle of nowhere. Because repairing for us is replacing the damaged tube with an identical one.

"Adding some material, welding over the crack, things like that are not allowed. That's why, in the case of Carlos, Laia [Sanz] and Seb, all these cars had to be withdrawn or disqualified because the roll cage was damaged, and as soon as the roll cage is damaged, it's not identical to the homologated one, so it can't continue."

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