Dacia Sandriders prepare for battle at the Dakar Rally

The Dacia Sandriders take on their next challenge at the Dakar Rally, the opening round of the 2025 FIA World Rally-Raid Championship from the 3rd to the 17th of January. Held on the sand dunes and rocky passes across the breadth of Saudi Arabia, competitors must find their way using GPS while tackling tough obstacles and extreme conditions.

Sébastien Loeb commented: “I’m really excited to kick off the Dakar with The Dacia Sandriders. We’ve worked hard to prepare for this race and now the excitement is truly building. Our goal is always to win, but we know how many critical factors must align for that to happen. It will be a tough Dakar and maybe we will have to manage our position more than we push to be able to win it. We will assess how things evolve day by day, but I’m hopeful that our experience will be a key advantage. We’re ready to give it everything we’ve got, and I know the team will do the same.”

Covering more than 5,145 timed kilometres across 12 days, the event starts in Bisha, in the west of Saudi Arabia and ends in Shubaytah to the east, via a rest day in Hail and an overnight halt in the capital, Riyadh. Including the 48-hour Chrono Stage which covers a punishing 971 competitive kilometres.

Dacia Sandriders’ Team Principal, Tiphanie Isnard, said: “We’re about to take on what we can only describe as an extraordinary human challenge, but it’s one we’re determined to tackle with courage and belief given how hard we have worked to prepare. While it’s an arduous event with little respite during almost three intense weeks, we’re excited for what’s in store and we can’t wait to get started. 

“Of course, we go to the event as winners following our victory at the Rallye du Maroc, but that result will count for nothing if we underestimate the task we face or if we don’t stay focused throughout each stage.”

Following the Rallye du Maroc, The Dacia Sandriders set sail for Saudi Arabia. 

“Of course, we go to the event as winners following our victory at the Rallye du Maroc, but that result will count for nothing if we underestimate the task we face or if we don’t stay focused throughout each stage.”

Following the Rallye du Maroc, The Dacia Sandriders set sail for Saudi Arabia. 

Technical Director Philip Dunabin said: “First and second places on Rallye du Maroc showed that the Dacia Sandrider has a good level of performance, but obviously with going from Morocco to the Dakar, the focus has been on the reliability to make sure we can do the two weeks without any problems. Since Morocco we’ve worked on improving potential reliability issues on the engine during a full day of running at Sweet Lamb in Wales.

“We also had another session which concentrated on optimising the cooling performance of the engine and other aspects of the car. This was done in a climatic wind tunnel at the MIRA facility in the UK. Through testing in Morocco and into the rally we had a certain number of issues with the electronics that controlled the fans for the engines. With the assistance of Alpine Racing, we’ve been able to do quite a deep dive into the electronics of the fans and we’ve put in place several measures together with the fan manufacturer to improve the reliability of those components. 

“We’ve also worked on items that have a limited life to make sure we have an adequate supply to get through the Dakar. We based this on an assessment of the performance of those components during Rallye du Maroc and throughout the testing, so we have a good understanding of the lifetime of each component to make sure we get to the end of the Dakar with a minimum number of problems. This will optimise our chances of getting the best result possible.”