For its 45th edition, the Dakar 2023 will be contested over 14 stages in addition to a prologue and will pit the competitors against more dunes, nearly 5,000 kilometers of specials, i.e. the “
most demanding
” route since its welcome in Arabia. Arabia in 2020 according to the organizers.
This edition promises to be "
particularly ''challenging''
", predicted Yann Le Moenner, general manager of ASO, Amaury Sport Organisation, during the presentation of the route on Thursday.
The rally-raid, 8,549 km long, will set off on December 31 from the shores of the Red Sea to reach the Arabian Gulf on January 15 after more than two weeks of "
adventure of all sands
"
, placed under the sign of
“
extreme endurance
”
, with
“
more dunes in specials
”.
Unlike the last three editions, including that of 2022 marked by at least one explosion before the first stage, the 455 vehicles expected at the start (865 pilots and co-pilots) will meet in a bivouac erected 200 km west of Medina.
During the first week, marked by specials of more than 400 km, they will head north and the archaeological site of Al-Ula with delicate areas loaded with rocks, before Ha'il where they will make two loops, rich in canyons and “
mountains of sand
”.
After a break in Riyadh on the 9th, the rally-raid will plunge into the depths of the "
Empty Quarter
" (south), one of the largest deserts in the world, for in particular a marathon stage which could affect the final hierarchy between the KTM motorcycles of Kevin Benavides and Matthias Walkner, the GasGas of defending champion Sam Sunderland and his team-mate Dany Sanders.
In the cars, it will also be the test of truth for the hybrid-powered Audis of Stéphane Peterhansel, Carlos Sainz and Mattias Ekström and the title holder, the Qatari Nasser al-Attiyah (Toyota).
The race will end on the 15th in Dammam with a beach special, a rolling course that is not conducive to upsetting the rankings.
The course will also differ twice for the Dakar Classic category, which pits cars dating from the 1980s-90s against each other.
This year, the Belgian Jacky Ickx, who took his Mercedes 280 GE to victory on the shores of Lac Rose in Senegal in 1983, will be its ambassador.
After the Sahel, then South America, the Dakar, the largest rally-raid in the world, has made Saudi Arabia its backdrop in 2020, a choice that has sparked controversy due to the shortcomings of the ultra-conservative kingdom. in the area of human rights.
The 2022 edition was marked by the explosion of a vehicle, the origin of which remains officially unknown, on December 30 in Jeddah.
A French pilot, Philippe Boutron, was seriously injured in this explosion and French justice had opened an investigation for "
attempted assassinations in connection with a terrorist enterprise
".
French investigators suspect that the 2022 edition was the scene of a second criminal explosion.