Rally director David Castera revealed the specifics of the 47th edition of the Dakar, which will take the amateurs and champions of planet rally raid to Saudi Arabia for the sixth time in a row. A prologue and 12 stages will be held between 3 and 17 January, including the 48 h chrono stage, a marathon stage and the climactic challenge in the Empty Quarter before the race draws to a close in Shubaytah.
The route starts in Bisha and stretches for about 7,700 kilometres, including 5,100 kilometres of specials. For the first time, five stages will take place on separate courses for the FIM and FIA vehicles, amounting to 45% of the timed distance. · The W2RC champions Ross Branch and Nasser Al Attiyah enjoy top billing on the FIM and FIA start lists, which contain 340 entries in total.
On the fringes of the main event, the Dakar Classic will see 76 cars and 19 trucks from a bygone era go head to head in a regularity race, while the Mission 1000 Challenge will put five vehicles equipped with cutting-edge tech to the test on the same terrain as the rally.
The first couple of days of the 2025 Dakar will double as a springboard for a whole new generation of Saudi racers selected as part of the “Saudi Next Gen” operation, which will award a ticket to the 2026 edition to the top-performing crew.
Just one taste was all it took to have them yearning for more. In 2024, the Dakar entrants discovered the 48 h chrono stage, a mammoth endeavour spread out over two days in which the participants have to shut down their engines as soon as the sun goes down and spend the night in bare-bones rest areas set up in the middle of nowhere —or nearly so— in the Saudi desert. This extraordinary challenge is returning in 2025 with an even greater emphasis on the characteristics that set it apart: an even greater mileage (958 km for the FIM race and 917 km for the FIA race), a varied tapestry of terrains throughout these two days and, most importantly, the fact that it will come on the third day of racing. The field will barely have time to catch its breath before it needs to strike the right balance between speed and caution in the marathon stage leading to the rest day, which will take place on 10 January in Ha’il, the beating heart of cross-country rallying in Saudi Arabia.
There will be no shortage of difficulties in the second week, so anyone who tries to predict the ultimate outcome of the race based on the state of play at the halfway point will be relying on little more than vibes. To shake things up even more, the latter half of the rally contains most of the specials held on separate courses for the motorbike and car categories, both of which stand to gain a lot from it. Fewer overtakes will make for an even safer race. On the sporting side, having parallel itineraries will force co-drivers to navigate without the aid of the tracks left by the motorbikes while providing enough time for the cars to hit the track as soon as the sun peers over the horizon. This reduces the likelihood of having to drive around the dunes after nightfall. Even so, the field will gobble up tonnes of sand over the last few days of racing in the Empty Quarter, especially in the eleventh and penultimate stage. Expect the unexpected in the huge loop around Shubaytah. An old-school cavalry charge will stand out from the photo reel of the denouement, featuring a mass start as the entrants again set course for Shubaytah, which will set the scene for the first-ever grand finale in the heart of the bivouac.
2025 Dakar Route
The organisation of the rally heard them loud and clear, dialling up the level of difficulty of its sixth edition in Saudi Arabia, which will stretch for almost 8,000 kilometres —including more than 5,000 in specials— from Bisha to Shubaytah. Drawing on their intimate knowledge of the country, the organising teams have concocted a challenge that will put riders, drivers and crews through their paces from the first moment to the last, with precious few opportunities to catch their breath between one strenuous effort and the next. The harrowing 48h chrono stage, bumped up to the first part of the race, will lead almost directly into the marathon stage, which will begin to shape the outcome of the event. In the second week, Shubaytah will be shining in the distance as a beacon awaiting the participants who manage to tame the dunes of the Empty Quarter. Meticulous care went into separating the courses of the specials over more than 45% of the total mileage, a tried-and-tested approach that will make the race even smoother and safer while complicating navigation for the cars. Finally, the race will come to the heart of the bivouacs, which will host stage starts and finishes, as well as the final podium in Shubaytah on 17 January.
IT ALL STARTS IN BISHA
The concept of an XXL bivouac that serves as the focal point for the whole event in the run-up to the race met with widespread acclaim on the shores of the Red Sea in 2023 and against the majestic backdrop of AlUl in 2024.
It is now set to pitch its tents in Bisha, a city of 200,000 in the south-western quadrant of Saudi Arabia, where the vast majority of competitors will arrive after retrieving their vehicles from the Port of Jeddah. The competitors will come together in time to ring in the new year and spend the first few hours of 2025 going through the technical and administrative scrutineering and making the final tweaks to their preparations. Oasis vibes…
