Rally Raid
12 things you never knew about the Dakar Rally
Fine tune your knowledge of the Dakar Rally as the toughest test in motorsports returns to the dunes in January 2026. We've picked out 10 little-known gems of wisdom about this unique race.
Part of this story
Let us help you tighten the final screw as you prepare to take in the 2026 Dakar Rally. They’ll be calling you the 'Brains of the Bivouac' once you’ve stashed away these lesser-known facts about the world's hardest endurance race.
01
Some stats to get you up and running…
The 48th Dakar Rally sees 812 competitors set off on the biggest adventure in motorsport, leaving the Start Camp in Yanbu on January 3 for two weeks of racing around the deserts and jagged, dry terrain of Saudi Arabia. The international field of competitors from 69 countries and their 433 bikes, cars, trucks, buggies and quads will journey nearly 8,000km, racing for 5,000km of those against the clock. That's the equivalent distance of an entire World Rally Championship season.
The Dakar Rally is the definition of a marathon race
© DPPI/Red Bull Content Pool
02
A test of endurance
Known as the toughest race in the world, the Dakar is a destroyer of vehicles and not everyone setting out from Yanbu's XXL bivouac will make it back. In 2025, one third of competitors had to retire before the end of the rally. To help boost finisher numbers, for 2026, organisers have added several tyre stations where competitors can pit for fresh rubber and mousses to help them to push on in the stage and reach the next bivouac.
Safety is world class with every Dakar vehicle fitted with sophisticated tracking devices and a GPS that provides them with the day's road map, directions and also allows the 26-strong PCO team to monitor their progress. If anyone breaks down, they can contact race control, who will send help. If someone crashes on stage, it triggers an automatic alert and a rescue helicopter will be in the air within minutes.
World champion Lucas Moraes joins Toyota Gazoo Racing for the Dakar 2026
© Kin Marcin/Red Bull Content Pool
03
The Dakar Rally is a marathon not a sprint
The Dakar Rally is a rally-raid – a long-distance race that takes place over several days with sections held against the clock and connected by treks on public roads. In 2022, the Dakar became the opening round of the World Rally-Raid Championship (or W2RC), combining world title races for both bike and quads (FIM) with cars, trucks, lightweight prototypes and Side-by-Sides (FIA).
World champions Daniel Sanders (Bike) and Lucas Moraes (Car) will both begin their title defences in Saudi Arabia. They'll be racing for double points as well, because the mighty Dakar is a week longer than the other four rallies in the series. After the Dakar, the W2RC will compete in Portugal, Argentina and Morocco before finishing in the UAE at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.
Nasser Al-Attiyah kicks up some sand
© DPPI / Red Bull Content Pool
04
Did we say a marathon? We meant marathons within a marathon
The seventh edition of the Dakar Rally to be held in Saudi Arabia also promises to be the toughest yet, with a pair of two-day Marathon-Refuge Stages in each week of the rally. In the spirit of the original Paris-Dakar, these will see the Dakarists race far into the desert, where they have to erect their tents, cook their meals and carry out running repairs to their machinery, using a rudimentary kit. After sleeping under canvas, they have to set off again for another day's gruelling racing before arriving at the next bivouac.
05
Don't let a broken bone slow you down
Toby Price returns to Car action for a second time with Toyota
© Kin Marcin/Red Bull Content Pool
Two-time Dakar bike race winner Toby Price comes direct from the Baja 1000 to to race his Toyota Hilux Overdrive in the Dakar for a second crack at the Car class. However, the Australian's exploits across a decade in the Dakar's bike race will not be forgotten in a hurry. Price's second Dakar victory on two wheels came in 2019 and gave Red Bull KTM Factory Racing their 18th consecutive win at the famous rally.
But that isn't even the most remarkable fact about that particular win. What's even more amazing than KTM's never-to-be-beaten winning streak is the fact that Price raced 5,200km to victory with a broken bone. Just weeks before the rally, Price broke the scaphoid bone in his right wrist. He considered giving up his entry to the rally, but instead boarded his flight to Peru and won the final Dakar hosted in South America.
06
Support trucks are both competitors and service vehicles
Waiting for the support truck to arrive
© Eric Vargiolu/DPPI/Red Bull Content Pool
The top factory teams have support lorries that carry vital equipment through each stage and can be used should the top runners suffer an accident or mechanical problem. These support trucks are massive and can cover the terrain just as well as the cars, although they are significantly slower. These big beasts of the desert also race against the rally's other support vehicles in their own truck class.
Find out more about the Dakar Rally 2026
07
An eye on the future
Laia Sanz in the electric EBRO S800 XRR
© Pawel Starzyk/Red Bull Content Pool
The Dakar isn't just about endurance, it's also a proving ground for new technology. Every category will put new components to the test. Laia Sanz is racing an electric EBRO S800 XRR T1+ having taken the innovative machine to 20th at the Rallye du Maroc. "It's been a great start for us. The project is still very new, but I'm thrilled because I can see that the pace is there," she said on the finish line. "I'm so thankful for the team's effort in improving the car every day. There’s still some work left to do before Dakar, but we’ll be ready."
The deserts of the Dakar have always served as a testing ground for improved speed as well as safety. Rally legend Carlos Sainz won the 2024 Rally Dakar in an Audi RS Q e-tron featuring an electric-powered drivetrain. Even more innovation will be on show in the Dakar Future Mission 1000. It's the third year of the category where the Dakar Rally provides the toughest testing conditions for alternative energy sources. This year there will be seven all-electric motorbikes and the KH-7 ECOVERGY Team racing a revolutionary MAN 6x6 racing truck powered by a mixed Hydrogen/HVO system.
08
The rally started with someone getting lost in the desert
Getting lost is a big part of Dakar lore
© Florent Gooden/DPPI/Red Bull Content Pool
Thierry Sabine, a French motorbike racer, was competing in the 1977 Abidjan-Nice Rally when he lost his way. Realising that navigating the remote sand dunes of a desert posed quite a challenge, he organised the first Dakar Rally. This inaugural edition left Paris in December 1978. The rally gets its name from the capital of Senegal, the location of the original finish line for the race.
09
Women are racing to the front
Cristina Gutierrez, Laia Sanz and Dania Akeel
© Kin Marcin / Red Bull Content Pool
Women are playing an increasingly important role in the competition. The first woman to win the Dakar outright was German driver Jutta Kleinschmidt in 2001 and Cristina Gutiérrez built on her stage wins to clinch the Challenger class in 2024. Laia Sainz raced to the highest-ever finish for a woman in the Bike class with ninth place in 2016 and returns with her electric car this year.
This year, 39 women will be racing all the way to the finish line. Gutiérrez is back at the wheel of her Dacia Sandrider and she’ll be joined in the Car class by home hero Dania Akeel for Toyota. Meanwhile, stage winner Sara Price joins Land Rover in the Stock category racing the new Defender Dakar D7X R. In the Trucks, María Tarruell leads an all-female truck team as driver, with Jaqueline Ricci and Rebeca Aramburu as navigator and mechanic of the Tibau Team, declaring: "When three women share the same dream, no desert can stop them."
Mechanics are kept busy at the Dakar
© Flavien Duhamel/Red Bull Content Pool
10
The lightweight divisions unearth new talent
Since the Dakar's relocation to Saudi Arabia, there has been a huge uplift in competitors entering the Lightweight Divisions of the rally, such as the Challenger category. Challenger machines such as the Taurus T3 Max house both a driver and co-driver and measure up to a two-thirds version of the Ultimate class race cars driven by the likes of Carlos Sainz, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Sébastien Loeb. Competing in the Challenger class is seen as the ideal way to progress from training wheels to the sharp end of the rally. This has been shown by recent Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team graduates Seth Quintero, Cristina Gutiérrez, Mitch Guthrie Jr. and Guillaume de Mévius, who all continue in the Ultimate class at the 2026 Dakar.
"The Challengers are limited to a top speed of 135kph while the Ultimates can hit 170kph,” explains De Mevius, who finished as runner-up on his Ultimate class debut. "The chassis strength of the Ultimate is also a significant upgrade, you can attack much more over rocks and jumps. You soon find the limit in a Challenger, but an Ultimate car can take you anywhere."
11
The landscapes will blow your mind
The Saudi Arabian scenery never fails to impress
© Florent Gooden/DPPI/Red Bull Content Pool
After being hosted by Africa and then South America, the Dakar's latest home is Saudi Arabia. The Middle Eastern nation has stunned competitors with its desert terrain, making it the ideal Dakar host. Few things left the field of the Dakar as awestruck as AlUla and the surrounding region when the race first landed in Saudi Arabia in January 2020. The kaleidoscopic landscapes blend the weight of history and an element of mystery in a humbling experience.
The Dakar has returned time and again to AlUla following its first encounter with archaeological sites from the dawn of time and the Nabatean temples sprinkled around the old town. It's in the canyons of AlUla that Dakar competitors will be tested against the Marathon Stage of the 2026 Dakar Rally. Under Marathon Stage rules competitors spend a night camping in the desert separated from their mechanics, meaning any repairs needed are a solo job.
Nasser Al-Attiyah pauses to enjoy the stunning Saudi Arabian landscape
© DPPI / Red Bull Content Pool
12
The drivers don't have time to stop and…
Some of the drivers struggle with the notion of staying in the car for an entire day. Some stages require 12 hours of driving and, well, sometimes nature knocks on the door. Therefore some of the drivers have sacks in their race suits so that they can pass urine as they pass rivers and boulders at 170kph. It's just one of many sacrifices made in the name of completing – and trying to win – the Dakar Rally.
Part of this story