Next week will see the running of the 47th edition of what has been reputed as the world’s toughest off-road event – the Dakar Rally. The event began in 1979 as a 10,000-km race from Paris to Dakar in Senegal on the west coast of Africa. It grew in stature and attracted many entries, attracting individuals as well as automakers like Mitsubishi Motors, Citroen, Peugeot and even Porsche in the early years.
In 2008, the event had to be cancelled because the safety of the competitors could not be guaranteed as they passed through Mauritania where terroist attacks could occur. The following year, the event was moved to South America but retained the Dakar name. In 2020, the organisers shifted the venue to the desert sands of Saudi Arabia where it will again be held for the sixth time in 2025.
Fifty registered FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) contenders spearhead a massive entry list on what promises to be one of the most difficult ever Dakar rallies and the fourth to be the opening round of the W2RC.
Starting with a 29-km Prologue stage near Bisha in the southwest of the Kingdom on January 3, the competitors will tackle 12 gruelling desert stages that incorporate 5,145 competitive kms in a punishing route of 7,753 kms.
The first part of the rally features the 48-hr chrono stage of 965 kms on January 5 and 6 and this leads towards a Marathon stage without service assistance between Al-Henakiya and Al-Ula, en route to the rest day in Ha’il.
After the rest day on January 10, action resumes with the sixth stage of 606 kms between Ha’il and Ad-Duwadimi and another punishing 481-km loop through the deserts around Ad-Duwadimi on January 12.
The competitors then head to the Saudi capital of Riyadh and on to Haradh for a further 2 specials of 487 kms and 357 kms before arriving in Shubaytah on January 15 after a short run of 119 kms through the demanding dunes.
A final challenge will be the 11th stage of 280 kms around Shubaytah on January 16 before the final Power Selective Section forms part of the last stage of 134 kms that brings the survivors to the finish celebrations in remote Shubaytah. Points will be awarded for the fastest 3 crews in each category on the new Power Selective Section.
To make the competition as fair as possible in the flagship Ultimate category, a series of proposals have been approved in the FIA Cross-Country Rally Sporting Regulations to finalise the deployment of the FIA torque meter for the first time in 2025.
This will be the primary system for monitoring and controlling powertrain performance in Ultimate group cars. Sporting penalties of 10 seconds per infringement will be imposed for up to five, 30 seconds for six to 10 or a fixed penalty of 10 minutes per stage for more than 10 infringements.
The Cross-Country Rally Commission carried out an assessment in 2024 and has restructured the points-scoring system. For the Dakar, the points scale of 50, 40, 30, 26, 23, 20, 17, 13, 11, 9, 7, 6, 5 and 4 is in situ and the event will also see 4 points awarded for classified competitors from 16th place onwards and two points awarded to unclassified competitors.
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing (which won in 2022 and 2023) are the defending W2RC Manufacturers’ champions but face the might of Dacia and the Ford M-Sport teams on this occasion, with X-raid MINI team concentrating on the Drivers’ Championship. BBR Motorsport (Taurus), the G Rally Team and X-Raid will battle it out for honours in the Challenger category and the Can-Am Factory Team faces competition from Polaris in the SSV class.
Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah is a 5-time winner of the event and the defending W2RC champion. He and co-driver Edouard Boulanger made the switch to the new Dacia Sandrider towards the end of 2024 and the Qatari clinched a third successive title – and a first with Boulanger – with victory at the Rally of Morocco on the car’s debut.
Click here to follow the 2025 Dakar Rally from January 3 – 19.
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