The Dakar 2025 will be “more about endurance than sprint” with 5,500 km of specials

The Dakar rally, the toughest automobile event in the world, is surpassed again. In its 47th edition, again in Saudi Arabia (for the sixth consecutive year), from January 3 to 17, the legendary rally will be characterized by being “more of an endurance Dakar than a sprint”, in the words of its director, David Castera. “This is the Dakar of maturity” and “the best” of the six held on the Arabian Peninsula.

“The participants are going to have to be patient and advance little by little and with their heads in the 5,500 km of specials,” as announced by the former French driver in Barcelona, ​​shortly before the world presentation of the rally on social networks. “What marks this edition are the kilometers of timed specials, it has been many years since we have done so many,” explained Castera during the presentation of the Repsol Toyota Rally Team of Isidre Esteve and Txema Villalobos.

12 stages and a prologue

In total, 7,700 km will be covered, 5,500 of them timed

The Dakar 2025, which will be held from January 3 to 17, starting in Bisha and finishing in Shubaytah, will be made up of 12 stages and an initial prologue on day 3. One of the toughest, a priori, will arrive soon: the second day The 48-hour time trial challenge has been scheduled, as well as a marathon stage, followed by a crossing through the Empty Quarter before the final fireworks in Shubaytah.

According to Castera, “never before” had they had “so much dune” in the Dakar. “Before there were 10 or 20 kilometers of dunes, while now there are 200 or 300 km of dunes” in the double stage over about 1,000 total kilometers of the 48-hour day.

“Nobody realizes it now, because the vehicles have had a great development and can do incredible things but we have never had so many dunes,” stressed the Frenchman.

In total, the 807 competitors in 439 vehicles that start in Bisha will face a distance of about 7,700 kilometers, 5,500 of them timed. For the first time, five stages have been laid out on separate routes for motorcycles and for cars and trucks, that is, 45% of the total timed, in order to avoid risks of collisions and conflicts in departure times.

The favorites

Al Attiyah and Loeb with the new Dacia, Sainz with the Ford and the reliable Toyota will compete for the Tuareg on all four wheels

W2RC world champions Ross Branch (motorcycles) and Nasser Al Attiyah (cars) respectively appear at the top of the FIM and FIA entry lists, which include a total of 349 vehicles.

On motorcycles, the fight for the Tuareg is as open as in recent years, with Ricky Brabec defending the title at the head of Honda’s official fleet, the Monster Energy HRC. He will be accompanied by Pablo Quintanilla, Skyler Howes and the Valencian Tosha Schareina. Their biggest rivals will once again be the KTM of Daniel Sanders and the Benavides brothers, in a very renewed team, without their three great references, Sam Sunderland (retired), Matthias Walkner (recovering from the crash at the end of 2023) and Toby Price ( not renewed).

Without forgetting the Hero structure with Ross Branch, the rally-raid world champion, and José Ignacio Cornejo. Or the Sherco with Lorenzo Santolino from Salamanca.

In cars, the Dakar 2025 is experiencing a change of cycle with new faces: Audi said goodbye with the crown and Dacia and Ford enter, two of the largest manufacturers in the world, which will look for their first Tuareg in a fight with the reliable Toyota Hilux. Thus, the main candidates for the title will once again be Nasser Al Attiyah and Sébastien Loeb with the Dacia; Carlos Sainz, Nani Roma and Mattias Ekstrom with the Ford Raptor; and the Toyotas of Lucas Moraes, Yazeed Al Rajhi or Giniel De Villiers.

Apart from the main race, the Dakar Classic hosts 76 historic cars and 19 trucks that will face a regularity challenge, while the Mission 1000 challenge will allow five vehicles to test their innovative technologies on the rally terrain.