2023 Dakar: “The Sand Diagonal”

With the 2023 Dakar Rally getting underway on December 31, let’s take a top-line squiz at what to anticipate from the grand-daddy of all rally races…

THE 2023 ROUTE…

Beginning on a Sea Camp on the shores of the Purple Sea and ending on the other facet of the Arabian Peninsula – on the sands of the Arabian Gulf in Dammam – rivals on this 12 months’s 45^th version of the Dakar Rally will pack virtually 5000km of specials right into a prologue and 14 phases. The route will embrace a four-day journey by means of the Empty Quarter, together with the marathon stage, and is being billed because the hardest for the reason that rally got here to Saudi Arabia 4 years in the past.

Utilizing a brand new itinerary this time round, it’ll run from December 31, 2022, to January 15, 2023, and double as the primary spherical of the FIA-FIM World Rally-Raid Championship.

THE TERRAIN…

Attempt to wrap your meat pies round this 90-second snapshot of the majestic and extremely diversified Saudi Arabian terrain the 2023 Dakar Rally traverses.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE 2023 EDITION…

• An XXL bivouac beginning with the “checks”
• 1 + 14 = 15 days of competitors
• 3 days within the Empty Quarter
• The “Explorers” rewarded
• Random roadbooks: No copying!
• Bikes: A bonus for opening a stage
• A digital roadbook for everybody
• Dakar Traditional: Two new challenges
• “Dakar Future”: An extra step ahead 

Need extra element? Learn extra right here as there’s have been some important guidelines adjustments for the 2023 Dakar, just a few of which ought to produce much less yo-yo impact with the bikes’ outcomes and extra incentives to take stage wins.

BEST MOMENTS OF THE 2022 DAKAR

Try this highlights reel, which condenses 15 days of competitors into 4 minutes of finest and most memorable moments of the 2022 race.