Spaniard Carlos Sainz can extend his record as the Dakar Rally’s oldest champion by becoming the first to win with five different car manufacturers in the two-week marathon starting in Saudi Arabia this weekend.
The 62-year-old defending champion, whose namesake son races in Formula One, has teamed up with Ford following Audi’s withdrawal.
Sainz, who won with Volkswagen in 2010 and Peugeot in 2018 before becoming the oldest winner with Mini in 2020 at the age of 57, has been working hard to get in shape for the intense challenge of the desert dunes and rocky roads.
“The victory in the last Dakar was historic, and I’m still overjoyed to have done it, but it’s in the past, and now I’m concentrating on the next edition,” he said.
“Everyone is extremely motivated although it is true that the Dakar is a demanding race and in the first year of a project, no matter how many tests you do, you always pay for the fact that the car doesn’t have the kilometres…”
The rally stretches over some 8,000km from Friday’s prologue in Bisha in the south-west to the Jan. 17 finish at Shubaytah in the eastern Empty Quarter.
The route features a marathon stage and a 971km long Chrono stage in which competitors must overnight in a basic bivouac in the desert.
“It’s two days without any service from your team. You sleep in a tent in the desert, and it depends on your speed where you end up sleeping, and who else is there,” said Sainz, who is partnered by compatriot Lucas Cruz.
“It is very early in the rally, basically the second day. It will be so important to get it right, especially for us with a new car.”
Sainz will be one of the most experienced competitors along with Qatar’s five times winner Nasser Al-Attiyah. French veteran Stephane Peterhansel called it a day last year after winning 14 times on cars and motorbikes.
Al-Attiyah, who has won twice in Saudi Arabia, has joined nine-times world rally champion Sebastien Loeb in the new Dacia Sandriders team.
“The target is victory and I am very confident this can be possible,” said the Qatari.
“But with a tough route, particularly during the first week, we have to be clever, avoid taking unnecessary risks and stay concentrated… this is a rally where you have to expect the unexpected each day for more than two weeks.”
Saudi Arabia’s Dania Akeel, Spaniards Cristina Gutierrez and Laia Sainz, Germany’s Annett Quandt and American Sara Price are leading female entrants.
In the motorcycle category, two-times winner Ricky Brabec of the United States starts his title defence on a Honda.
Australian two-times motorcycle winner Toby Price has switched to four wheels, after 10 Dakars on two, and has double winner Sam Sunderland debuting as a co-driver in the car category.
The Dakar began in 1978 as a race from Paris across the Sahara to the Senegalese capital but switched to South America in 2009 for security reasons. It moved to Saudi Arabia in 2020 and is now the flagship of the FIA world rally-raid championship.
