Everything you need to know about Dakar Rally

As the Dakar Rally takes place in Saudi Arabia for a third year, there are plenty of stories to share about an event that is throttling full-speed ahead into a new world.

From sustainable fuels and highly-engineered green vehicles, to issues around inclusivity in motorsport, the Dakar is changing for the better.

We caught up with three competitors ahead of the event. There’s Mashael Alobaidan, the first Saudi woman to compete outside of the Middle East in rallying; Nani Roma, who has won on a bike and in a car and will be entering his 26th race; and Ricky Brabec, the first American ever to have won the Dakar. On your marks, get set, race.

Mashael Alobaidan

How do you feel about your first Dakar Rally?
The last two in Saudi were all about training for me. This third one is when I will officially race. I feel mixed emotions about it. I’m excited because honestly, it’s been a dream of mine. But I have a goal, not only to participate but to finish the rally. Finishing the hardest rally in the world relies on a lot of elements, plus luck, my friend. You see champions dropping in the Dakar.

How are you preparing for the rally?
Everyone is asking me how I am preparing. It’s three main elements. There is the physical element. I have my gym, SPNBX Riyadh, who have officially sponsored me. I have been training with them really hard. Then there is training yourself in endurance and with the vehicle itself. How to keep it safe, how not to damage it. I’m doing well, even though there aren’t many schools in Saudi I’m finding ways to learn.

The most important one is the third element though, the mental challenge. We have the Kingdom Tower, one of the tallest buildings in Saudi. I went from the ground floor to floor 99. I asked myself, ‘why am I doing this?’ But once I finished it, I felt a sense of achievement and renewed mental strength. I do things like this to train myself mentally for the Dakar. It’s about dealing with the point when you start asking yourself, ‘why am I doing this’? Because it gets rough, I’ve heard that from champions. I’ve seen grown men cry during the Dakar.

Have you experienced any difficulties entering the race?
I am the first Saudi woman to race outside of the Middle East in rallying. I learned how to ride a dirt bike and a street bike back in California. When I came to Saudi and saw
the Dakar happening for the first time I went to the Motorsport Federation and told them, ‘I want to race’. They simply told me that they don’t have lessons for women. They asked for a lot of certificates, which I had. I provided everything I needed to and got the first license for women rallying in Saudi. I was really lucky to race in the European Championships as well.

As a prominent woman competing in the Dakar, do you feel there is anything you want to share with your audience?
My message for not only females, but everyone who has a goal, is that it’s not easy. They say, ‘I’m sure she got it easy, that she got sponsors’ and so on. When it comes to sponsors and finding the best team, I have had a lot of ups and downs, a lot of punches. So many companies rejected me, tried to drag me down and said that it’s impossible. But
I have kept on pushing. I did a couple of races and I’m doing well. This is my message. To be frank, if you have a dream, go for it. It was
a lot of no, no, no, barely a yes, if I’m honest.

How do you navigate the business side of the Dakar, with sponsorships and financing races?
In the beginning I didn’t have sponsors. I’m an independent woman. I started after I graduated from my master’s degree in California. When I wanted to race a lot of companies rejected me. But I believe in myself so I invested in myself. It’s not easy money, I worked hard for it. Rather than investing it in a business, I invested in myself. I had one budget for one race in Europe. Everyone thought I was crazy for picking the rally in Spain, they call it the mini-Dakar. I made seventh place. They thought I was crazy for not picking other races where I could have won. In Spain I was racing with champions.

People are so concerned with your ranking at the end of the race, but they don’t know the real story behind the race. Money and sponsors don’t come easy. So you need to throw yourself in a race with a lot of the best competitors. I’m really stubborn, finally my stubbornness has come to something.

Nani Roma

This will be your 26th race. What have you discovered about the Dakar over the years?
Every year it is different and you are always learning something new. My first edition was in 1996, back when I was 23, when the rally went through Africa and across vast countries. It was all new for us back then. Now we know more about the race, but it still surprises us. It’s desert and we can’t control everything. It’s amazing to be here after 26 years, to be competitive, to have the fighting spirit and to try to win the race.

You are one of three competitors to have won on a bike and in a car, in 2004 and 2014 respectively. Tell us about the experience.
I remember my first victory in 2004 when I won on a motorcycle. You are always thinking of how it will feel on the day when you win the race. It brought me into the public focus in Spain and was a big success for the country. My life changed. In the beginning, my dream was only to be a part of the race. But the moment you realise you have the capacity to win, it is great. These are feelings that are difficult to explain. Continuing after 2004, when I decided to change to a different category, brought new challenges for me.
But I like a challenge.

What makes the landscape of Saudi Arabia so special to compete in?
The landscape changes a lot. It’s more similar to Africa, you have big spaces, big deserts. You find amazing culture, landscape and nature here. I am a lucky man to race in Africa, South America, and now in this new continent.

These big spaces and big deserts are wonderful to race in. I don’t get much time to enjoy the landscape as a tourist as I am preparing for the race. I’d like to do more of this when I stop racing, but I don’t know which year that will be. I’m not a good tourist though, I can’t sit still. I like to move around inside the countries.

Your Hunter vehicle uses a biofuel developed by a British manufacturer. Tell us how your team is working hard to make the race more sustainable and why this matters.
This is the future of the planet and we are in the public focus. We need to make the world move in this direction. Humans have made such an impact on the planet. Maybe I sound like a politician, but it’s the reality. This year we have 80 per cent less pollution. Audi have also arrived with a green car. This is the future of motorsport.

Last year your co-driver dropped out after testing positive for Covid-19. Tell us about that.
It’s really tough. I remember December 24, three days before we were meant to leave, he was still positive since December 6. At first I thought we’d be fine after ten days to leave for Jeddah. So we needed to find someone else. We started to talk about a replacement on December 28. It was hard but we had to accept the situation. It’s something I have learned over the years. You have to accept things sometimes. Sometimes you work really hard and something happens out of your control. This is part of the magic of the sport.

How do you spend the rest day?
It’s a strange day. After six days of fighting you try to spend the day quietly. But you end up busy all day with mechanic meetings. The day flies by. You should relax and listen to music. But in the end, it’s a busy day. After 26 years it has stayed the same. I don’t move much in the bivouac. I stay with my team and talk with my co-pilot. I say hello to friends sometimes, after 26 years you know a lot of people there.

What is the most challenging section of the race?
Sometimes you expect a certain day, and in the end, you have an issue on another day. Only after the race can you give an answer. The first days you are excited and you need to find your speed. Your body needs to get used to being in the heat of the car all day. You need to adapt. Then you begin to feel well and you think about tactics and positions. The last part is the hardest, when you are in front, or when you are behind. When you are leading you want short stages, and when you are behind you want longer stretches to try to recover the time you have lost.

Ricky Brabec

You are the first American to have ever won the Dakar Rally. How did it feel when you won in 2020?
It felt good when it happened but now it is about trying to maintain it. It’s not easy to win back-to-back. With a second-place finish in 2021, we’re still in the ballpark to finish on the podium in 2022. So we’ll see how it goes.

You come from a racing background in America. What interested you in Dakar race?
I have no idea how I got into Dakar. I got invited to go, and once I went I was hooked. Before I got asked I didn’t even think it would be possible to get there as an American. The rally was a completely different style of race for me. A lot of people here in the US think they can just go and do the Dakar and that it’s easy. And they try and they make themselves look like fools. But the rally is completely different from any style of race that we have here in America. It definitely takes a couple of years to get used to it and to really figure it out. Now we are in that era of finally knowing what it takes. So we’re going to go all out. You gain more knowledge over the years about the rally and how it goes.

Are there any particularly tough bits on the route?
No not really, Saudi is pretty nice. Saudi has been good to us. I like the Saudi desert a little bit more than the South American desert. I’m usually pretty excited to go back to compete in Saudi.

How do you prepare for the Dakar Rally?
We try to stay focused all year round. Normally we take a little break just after the Dakar. But right now it’s the most important time; from October until Christmas Day. We try to really freshen up our skills and try to stay focused on the rally. We do our best to stay healthy, fit, and agile on the bike.

From 2022 the Dakar Rally will be part of the FIM Cross-Country Rally World Championship and will kick off the season. How does this affect you?
I’d like the Dakar to stay as its own race. If it’s part of the World Championship it’s just another race. If it’s by itself it’s a legendary, one-time event that happens once a year. The older style of Dakar was more of an adventure. Now it’s a 100 per cent race every day. In the past it was more of an adventure-style experience.

How do you spend the rest day?
The rest day is not really a rest day. In 2022 it wasn’t even going to be a rest day. It was going to be a 700km transfer day but that got changed. You’re running around trying to do laundry. You have media and the mechanics are talking to you, the team is talking to you. You don’t get to sleep late or eat fancy food. You sleep in the bivouac, you get up early, eat the same food. The only aspect of the rest day that could be considered restful is that you are off the bike for a day. But I’d rather just stay on the bike.

The Dakar landscape has been described as “sand in all shapes and colours”. What is special about the landscape you are racing in?
The sand comes in many different colours. We’re racing 9,000km so the landscape varies a lot. Although we cover some ground, we can’t really take our eyes off the road and look at the landscape as we go, as much as we’d like to.

Race locations

Ha’il
Divided into 12 stages and covering over 9,000km of desert landscape the 2022 Dakar Rally route has been described as “sand galore”. This somewhat undersells a route that is as diverse as it is complex and challenging. From January 1 competitors will pass through the mountainous landscapes of northern Saudi Arabia as they navigate around Ha’il. Time penalties will be awarded to those not properly following the route so this is no time to get lost off the beaten track. As Nani Roma says, the first few days of the Dakar are crucial for establishing your dominance in the race.

Riyadh
As the competitors reach Riyadh ahead of the ‘rest day’, a misnomer as all three competitors admit, the route becomes more about complicated intersections and long dune sections reaching through 200km of desert. This is the time for closing gaps and chasing down the race leaders. Those leading at this stage in the race will be looking over their shoulders, eager to press on through the sea of dunes. A rocky finish awaits the racers as they give it everything they have before the halfway point of the rally.

Jeddah
As the rally nears its end, the spectators who have followed the bivouacs are treated to Wadi ad-Dawasir, a miracle oasis. For the drivers, there is a challenging loop around Bisha ahead, which leaves everything open in the race rankings. It really is all to play for at this point. Stage 11 offers not just a technical challenge, with myriad dunes in all shapes and forms, but a mental battle too for the competitors who have made it this far. As they reach Jeddah, the dunes are behind the competitors and they tackle long tracks on their way to the gorgeous Red Sea coast.