Dakar 2024, Al-Attiyah's prophecy: “Three days and Audi goes home”

The king forgets diplomacy

Nasser Al-Attiyah has decided to ignite the Dakar 2024 starting from the press conference to present the raid which will start tomorrow and end on January 19th. The Qatari, winner of the last two editions, will race this year driving a Prodrive Hunter. Al-Attiyah has chosen this solution while waiting to wear the colors of Dacia starting from 2025.

“I needed a new challenge – the words of Al-Attiyah reported by today's edition of the French newspaper The Team – signing my contract with Dacia forced me to change teams a little earlier than I would have liked, but it will allow me to familiarize myself with the Prodrive team and this is very positive in view of the Dacia project”. Dacia, in fact, will rely on Prodrive and therefore there could not be a better 'ferry' for Al-Attiyah in 2024.

According to the five-time winner of the Dakar, the Audis will go very fast due to the changes to the regulations regarding the weight-power ratio, but Al-Attiyah's opinion is that the buggies from the Four Circles house have their days numbered: “I'll give them three days and they'll go home. You saw it in Morocco and in Aragon after a few hundred kilometers”added the Qatari regarding what happened in the tests (words reported by today's edition of the Spanish sports newspaper AS). Al-Attiyah aims to join an exclusive club, that of those who have won the Dakar three years in a row. Only Ari Vatanen and Pierre Lartigue succeeded. If the Audis are actually not in the game, the most dangerous opponent for the Qatari will be his brand mate Sebastien Loeb: “It's fantastic to have Seb by our side, he is one of the best drivers in the world and now has a lot of experience in rally raids,” says Al-Attiyah. I presented him as my number 1 rival already before the start of the last two Dakars and here we are on the same team. We get along well and will do everything we can to get both our cars on the podium.”