"We took Dakar 2022 as a learning experience."

Daniel Schröder and Ryan Bland really threw themselves at the deep end on last year's Dakar. Daniel came in as a late replacement for his father Jürgen, who was forced to pull out with a shoulder injury. And despite the fact that he hadn't got behind the wheel of a rally car in almost two years, the 33-year-old German brought his Nissan Navara VK50 home in a creditable 36th place. It was also a very solid effort from South African co-driver Ryan, who was making his Dakar debut. Daniel completed the rally twice on a bike in South America before acting as his father's co-driver in 2015, 2016 and 2019. His brother Maximilian did the same in 2018, guiding Jürgen to 22nd place overall, but with the advent of T1+ cars Daniel knows it will be hard for him and Ryan to achieve that kind of result in 2023. They are simply hoping to build on last year's promising performance and give the other T1 cars a run for their money on the road to Dammam.

D.S.: "We had a fairly good race in 2022 and were quite happy with 36th place. Ryan and I said from the beginning that we didn’t want to take too much risk. Our main objective was to get through safe and get our hands on one of those finisher medals with as few issues as possible. It was also Ryan's first appearance at the Dakar, and even though I'd participated in a few Dakars before, I didn’t have a lot of experience behind the steering wheel. The last time I drove the car before Dakar 2022 was in March 2020, and even before that I'd never done a complete desert rally behind the wheel. My dad and I just swapped seats a few times when our rallies weren't going according to plan. Overall, we really took Dakar 2022 as a learning experience. With the introduction of the T1+ cars it was also very difficult to judge our performance, as there's a significant advantage for the new generation of cars. There are no major changes to our car for Dakar 2023. We've given it a good overhaul to get it ready for the rally, but it's still the same car as last year. We have done quite a bit of racing together this year, so we're definitely a lot more experienced with the car. Ryan and I participated in the South African Rally-Raid Championship (SACCS) in 2022. We were sitting second in the T1 class and 8th overall for the championship after five of seven rounds, but due to Dakar preparations we weren’t able to participate in the last events. I find it quite hard to have a real objective for the overall standings at Dakar 2023 because we're racing with all the T1+ cars, which definitely have a huge advantage over our older-spec car. It would be great to get a top five or even top three amongst T1 spec cars, but the main thing as always is to reach the finish line and have as much fun as possible getting there."