Dakar Rally event director David Castera says that a solution ‘will need to be found this evening’ after technical issues surrounding the Sentinel proximity warning systems blighted many Ultimate crews on the opening stage.
As part of the electronic road book setup on the Dakar, each car is equipped with two ‘tablets’, one of which [Sentinel] relays proximity warnings of terrain hazards or other competitors, notably motorbike riders.
Several crews lost the use of their Sentinel systems as early on as 100km into the 413km stage, making overtaking even more hazardous.
Speaking to La Chaine L’Équipe following the stage, Castera explained that work was already underway to find a solution ahead of Sunday’s second stage.
“Fortunately, almost everyone has a second tablet. So, there has been a tablet that has stopped one of its main functions, notably the Sentinel system which seems to have jammed and reset to zero,” said Castera.
“But the Sentinel was lost after that so that has caused us a few problems for the overtakes. On the plus side, the crews had the second tablet and were able to navigate and do what they needed to do. Now, we have to find out what the problem is tonight so that we can repair it for tomorrow.
“The drivers will complain about it, for sure, that I am used to. But it appears that it’s the same for everyone. Above all, it’s a safety issue because it’s to alert them about bikers nearby and to be able to pass safely. But we have to find the solution and make sure that it works properly for tomorrow.”
Five-time Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiyah told end-of-stage reporters that he had passed a biker at close range due to the Sentinel system malfunction.
“I am happy to finish. The tablet was broken after 100km, so we had some problems passing bikes and other cars,” explained Al-Attiyah. “We passed a bike without the sentinel which is really not nice.”
His navigator Edoaurd Boulanger, a former biker himself, echoed Castera’s hopes of a quick fix to the safety issue.
Al-Attiyah's navigator Edouard Boulanger knows the risks bikers face when being caught by cars on the Dakar first-hand
“At a certain moment, it seemed like all of the Sentinels stopped working, and this is a big problem,” told L’Équipe. “We did nearly 250km without Sentinel and we had to find safe places to overtake the motorbikes. We had a second tablet in the car which thankfully worked but it’s true that it is quite borderline in terms of safety on the stage. We have two GPS systems, but the bikers only have one, so for them it must be hell.”
Stage winner Guerlain Chicherit (X-raid Mini JCW) also had a near-miss and, despite hitting one of the many trees on the stage, emerged unscathed.
“We went straight into a tree avoiding a biker who was right next to me in the dust. We didn’t have any GPS anymore.
“I’m a bit annoyed, but it was the same for everyone else. [It was] only cosmetic damage.”
Dacia Sandriders team-mates Sébastien Loeb and Cristina Gutiérrez Herrero also faced Sentinel issues, as did M-Sport Ford’s Nani Roma.
The FIA’s Cross-Country and Regional Rally Championships Category Manager Jérôme Roussel explained that a software bug may have been to blame for the blanket failure.
He told DirtFish: “We rely on technology in modern sport and sometimes this technology can fail, we can see that every day in our daily lives and that is what happened today unfortunately. It seems that it was a software bug that affected the GPS navigation, the primary GPS navigation because includes the car-to-car communication system [Sentinel].
“This is the system you use to request to the car in front of you to overtake them and we also have a new anti-collision system which we tested successfully in Morocco.”
Roussel also confirmed to DirtFish that the root cause has been identified and that the tablets are in the process of being updated ahead of tomorrow’s stage.
“Every primary tablet is going to be updated so it will be a proper challenge. Dakar is full of untold stories, and this is one of them. The good thing is that we now know what happened and we can move forward.”
Despite this early issue, Roussel is satisfied that the backup tablets allowed the crews to complete the stages largely trouble-free.
“Almost all of the competitors have a second table so that when the primary tablet fails there is a back-up solution,” Roussel added. “If the primary tablet fails, the car-to-car communication becomes inoperative because otherwise they would talk to each other. In this case, the drivers just need to be more careful when they need to overtake, but at least the other GPS works, and they are still able to validate the waypoints.”
