The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia plays host to the 46th Dakar Rally and the opening round of the 2024 FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC), which start in Al-Ula on Friday (January 5th) and finishes in Yanbu on January 19th.
FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem will be in attendance alongside H.R.H. Prince Khalid bin Sultan Al-Faisal Al-Saud, President of the SAMF and member of the World Motor Sport Council.
This is the fifth occasion that the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation (SAMF) and the Amaury Sport Organisation (A.S.O.) have come together to host the world’s most famous cross-country rally.
It has attracted a capacity entry of 199 cars and trucks (70 Ultimate, 43 Challenger, 36 SSV, three Stock and 47 Trucks) and a list that features 46 crews registered for the 2024 W2RC, including twenty-two in the new ‘Ultimate’ group (formerly T1, T1+ and T1.U).
Nasser Al-Attiyah is a five-time winner and the Qatari teams up with Mathieu Baumel to take part in the event for the first time in a Prodrive Hunter running under his Nasser Racing banner.
With nine-time WRC champion Sébastien Loeb not registered for the W2RC this season in his BRX Prodrive Hunter, Al-Attiyah’s Nasser Racing by Prodrive team has registered for the W2RC Manufacturers’ Championship and will take the fight to Toyota Gazoo Racing, Team Audi Sport and the X-Raid Mini JCW Team.
Toyota Gazoo Racing is aiming for a third successive Dakar victory and will be attempting to retain its Manufacturers’ crown in 2024.
Al-Attiyah may have moved on to pastures new but Brazil’s Lucas Moraes and co-driver Armand Monleón will represent the South African team in the latest version of the Hilux alongside new recruit and defending Challenger (formerly T3) champion Seth Quintero and his navigator Dennis Zenz.
Overdrive Racing’s Yazeed Al-Rajhi is also registered for the Manufacturers’ Championship on his home event with co-driver Timo Gottschalk.
Additional W2RC-registered Toyota drivers are Juan Cruz Yacopini, Guerlain Chicherit, Guillaume de Mévius, Lionel Baud, Eugenio Amos and Denis Krotov in five Overdrive Racing machines and Saood Variawa in a Toyota Gazoo Racing-entered car.
Former winner Giniel de Villiers will also drive a TGR Toyota but is not registered for the W2RC.
Team Audi Sport has registered four-time Dakar winner Carlos Sainz, French legend Stéphane Peterhansel and Mattias Ekström for the W2RC Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ Championships.
They will be co-driven by Lucas Cruz, Edouard Boulanger and Emil Bergkvist.
This will be the third time that the German operation has tried to win the Dakar in the latest versions of its revolutionary electric RS Q E-Tron E2.
The team won five special stages in 2022 and Ekström went on to finish ninth.
Last year, the Swede led after the Prologue and eventually finished 14th and Sainz led for two stages before crashing heavily.
Peterhansel is the most successful driver in Dakar history – with six wins on a motorcycle and eight in a car – but he was sidelined last January when co-driver Boulanger sustained a back injury after a heavy landing on stage six.
Defending European Baja Cup champion Krzysztof Holowczyc and young Spaniard Pau Navarro – the winner of last year’s European Baja Cup in T4 – will represent the X-Raid Mini JCW Team in the Manufacturers’ Championship in a pair of Mini JCW Rally Plus machines built at Trebur in Germany.
The team won six Dakars between 2012 and 2021 but has not graced the podium since Peterhansel and Sainz finished first and third in 2021.
Lukasz Kurzeja and Goncalo Reis will co-drive the two Minis.
Czech all-rounder Martin Prokop (Ford Raptor), Frenchman Mathieu Serradori (Century CR6-T), Dubai-based Aliyyah Koloc (Red-Lined Revo+), Jean-Luc Ceccaldi (MD Optimus) and a pair of X Rally Team Hunters for Marcos and Cristian Baumgart round off the registered W2RC entrants.
In addition to the podium-chasing Loeb, several other drivers will be aiming for a top 10 finish but are not registered for the W2RC.
Joan ‘Nani’ Roma (Ford Ranger) is a two-time Dakar champion and the Spaniard teams up with South Africa’s Gareth Woolridge in a two-car M-Sport Ford World Rally Team.
Lithuania’s Vaidotas Zala drives a Mini JCR Rally Plus, China’s Wei Han opts for a Hanwei Motorsport Team Red-Lined HW2024, the French trio of Christian Lavieille, Simon Vitse and Jérôme Pélichet drive MD Optimus Buggies and Isidre Esteve Pujol and Ronan Chabot are entered in Overdrive Racing Toyotas.