Andreas 'Andi' Schulz: Rally Co-pilot / DAKAR Winner / FIA World Cup Winner / Marathon Rally Winner / Baja Rally Winner

Andreas 'Andi' Schulz

Year One After Mitsubishi

It was in 2005 when rumours hit the streets that a major change in my rally sports will happen. The signs told us that some of the car companies will step out of official teams and rather support so-called private organized teams. It was also the time when I felt that my Mitsubishi time has to come to an end.

In fall 2005 I joined Volkswagen Motorsport and the first thing I noticed was a pretty different management style. Focused solely on being the top team in Dakar in a very short time.

The Volkswagen Years 2006-2008

For more information about our successes please get the PDF documents.

I Got a Call
In 2005 I did get a call by Carlos Sainz asking me whether I wanna join forces with him. At that point he did not have a team signed so I said to him 'Of course I am your co-pilot! You pick the team!'. This is how I happened to be a member of the Volkswagen Motorsport team. Volkswagen had also signed Jutta Kleinschmidt. I got approached by people having the idea of Jutta and me sitting again in the same car. But each of us did not spend a second on that thought. We did lots of testing in the desert and with Carlos we hit Dakar 2006. While we won 4 stages we ended up 11th due to mechanical problems which did cost us lots of time. Later in 2006 I noticed that I was obviously not the co-pilot which the management wanted to go for. The car was perfect and I was convinced to be able to hit the podium at the up-coming Dakar 2007 again. I decided to join The Lagos Team powered by Volkswagen. Carlos Sousa was my pilot. In Dakar 2007 we came in on 7th and the hard core rally sport fans know, that a much, much better rank was killed due to a mishap in the dunes. Dakar 2008 was cancelled and a Central European Rally was put in place instead. We ended on 5th place. It was the time where many pilots and co-pilots got hit by that economical crisis which left its first footprints in the car industry. As coincidence works in late summer of 2009 I got approached by Sven Quandt, CEO of X-Raid GmbH.

I Got a Call

In 2005 I did get a call by Carlos Sainz asking me whether I wanna join forces with him. At that point he did not have a team signed so I said to him 'Of course I am your co-pilot! You pick the team!'. This is how I happened to be a member of the Volkswagen Motorsport team. Volkswagen had also signed Jutta Kleinschmidt. I got approached by people having the idea of Jutta and me sitting again in the same car. But each of us did not spend a second on that thought.

We did lots of testing in the desert and with Carlos we hit Dakar 2006. While we won 4 stages we ended up 11th due to mechanical problems which did cost us lots of time. Later in 2006 I noticed that I was obviously not the co-pilot which the management wanted to go for.

The car was perfect and I was convinced to be able to hit the podium at the up-coming Dakar 2007 again. I decided to join The Lagos Team powered by Volkswagen. Carlos Sousa was my pilot. In Dakar 2007 we came in on 7th and the hard core rally sport fans know, that a much, much better rank was killed due to a mishap in the dunes.

Dakar 2008 was cancelled and a Central European Rally was put in place instead. We ended on 5th place. It was the time where many pilots and co-pilots got hit by that economical crisis which left its first footprints in the car industry. As coincidence works in late summer of 2009 I got approached by Sven Quandt, CEO of X-Raid GmbH.