The Dakar celebrates from Saturday in the Saudi dunes its 45 years of existence, with innovative or retro cars and in the background the security risk and the decried policy of Ryad. On December 26, 1978, Thierry Sabine gave the first departure from the Trocadéro in Paris for 182 vehicles, heading for the Senegalese capital. This Saturday, the most famous rally-raid on the calendar starts from the shores of the Red Sea and its azure waters, in Saudi Arabia.
After 29 years in Africa, then 11 years in South America to escape terrorist threats, here is the former “Paris-Dakar” on a third continent since 2020. A sign that despite the patina of time, the Dakar continues to make people dream, 170 participants are expected to compete for the first time, alongside around a hundred experienced drivers and co-drivers with at least ten Dakars on the clock.
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From the shores of the Red Sea to Dammam, the Dakar 2023 will cross Saudi Arabia
Fifteen days and 8,549 km of competition to cross the Saudi setting from west to east, more than 800 pilots and co-pilots entered in motorcycles, cars, quads and trucks. “The Dakar Saudi Arabia 2023”, as Prince Khalid bin Sultan Al-Faisal, President of the Saudi Motor Sport Federation, calls it “the largest and most demanding competition in the world” in this discipline. This event “reflects our ambitions and is part of the kingdom’s travel transformation“, he adds. But she also continues to make people cringe.
shadows on the board
NGOs criticize “sportwashing policy” of the first economy in the Arab world – using Formula 1, football or boxing competitions to make people forget their human rights violations.
“Sports fans should not indiscriminately believe the image fabricated and presented by the Saudi government through these events“, says Joey Shea, researcher on Saudi Arabia for Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Sébastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin at the start of the Dakar 2022, on December 31, 2021 in Jeddah
Credit: Getty Images
The NGO documented “widespread human rights abuses in the kingdom, including arbitrary arrests of peaceful dissidents and human rights activists, some of whom were sentenced to decades in prison for simply posting on social media“, she says.
Another downside: the explosion two days before the start of the 2022 edition of the car of French driver Philippe Boutron, seriously injured. One “accident“according to Ryad, an improvised explosive device, according to French investigators. Security has in fact been reinforced, assures the organizer Amaury Sport Organization (ASO). Check points, demining units and police patrols around the camp attest to this.
“Extraordinary Feelings”
The race, the first round of the rally-raid world championship, includes long specials of more than 400 km in the first week and will enter the second in “the heart of the Dakar”: an unprecedented dive into the ocean of dunes of Empty Quarter, one of the largest deserts in the world.
The winners will be designated at the end of the 14th stage, on January 15, drawn along the sea not unlike Lac Rose, near Dakar, in Senegal, a “nod to history“, according to David Castera, director of the event.
A motorcycle near Neom during the Dakar 2021
Credit: Getty Images
“The Dakar as a whole is going to be difficult“, predicts the French Sébastien Loeb (Prodrive) with “long specials in the dunes“, of the “extraordinary feelings with the cars we have today“but which require”to be super focused“.
For the nine-time world rally champion, the objective is to dethrone the Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah (Toyota), four-time winner of the event, and for that also resist the Spaniard Carlos Sainz (Mini) – father of the driver of F1 Carlos Sainz Jr- or the other tricolor tenor, Stéphane Peterhansel (Audi).
On the motorcycle side, the Briton Sam Sunderland (GasGas) will defend his crown, challenged by other top names in the discipline such as the Australian Daniel Sanders (GasGas), the Chilean Pablo Quintanilla (Honda), the Austrian Matthias Walkner (KTM ) or the Frenchman Adrien Van Beveren (Honda).
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