How Alpine helps Loeb’s bid for Dakar historical past with an unlikely challenger

The Dakar Rally returns to supply considered one of motorsport’s hardest assessments for human and machine in January, with Saudi Arabia once more internet hosting the problem. It is probably not the occasion it as soon as was when run by Africa to the Senegalese capital [the event’s name gives it away] however the check stays one which requires final efficiency and robustness to beat.

Relevance stays for producers seeking to show their mettle within the rally raid theatre, with Toyota, Ford and Mini all competing within the World Rally-Raid Championship’s (WR2C) Vehicles class – in addition to privateer Volkswagens, that are offshoots of the outdated works group.

REPORT: Dacia cools Dakar expectations after debut 1-2 at Rallye du Maroc

For the 2025 version, there is a shock identify aiming for glory: Dacia. The small Romanian producer is taking up the giants and aiming to make historical past when the Dakar Rally begins on 3 January. Motorsport.com was invited to go to the manufacturing facility of technical associate Prodrive, forward of its quest for glory.

Why Dacia is tackling Dakar

Dacia could be very cynical in its enterprise mannequin. It presents reasonably priced automobiles to its customers, together with solely what it wants inside its mannequin vary to maintain prices down, reasonably than including all of the devices and gizmos we have now come to anticipate in our street automobiles. But with a mission assertion that features specializing in its sustainability and remaining ‘Eco-Sensible’, the Dakar mission truly presents quite a few vital testbeds for the model.

“Our ambition throughout the Dakar mission is clearly to win, before everything,” says Dacia UK and Eire model director Luke Broad, who’s conscious that is no straightforward job for a model on the first time of asking.

“However we additionally see it as an efficient out of doors technical laboratory. The thought is to take our learnings inside Dakar with a view to ultimately seeing a few of the improvements that we put on this automotive in our street automobiles.

“It is also a spot for us to experiment with sustainable fuels as a result of, as a model, we’re not about going into the desert and polluting it. We’re going to do it in a really sustainable method, and that matches underneath our Eco-Sensible model.”

These sustainable fuels will come by a partnership with Saudi-based firm Aramco, which has been engaged on an analogous mission with Components 1 because the world championship ushers in a sustainable future in 2026.

Technical director Philip Dunabin says that whereas sure cases of expertise switch between the Dakar mission and Dacia’s road-car enterprise “should not actually very seen”, they’re nonetheless vital.

If a partnership with Prodrive wasn’t sufficient to make you imagine Dacia was taking this critically, then the crews that may become familiar with the three-car entry ought to

“Dacia has been engaged on pigments and resin, on this case within the carbon fibre,” he explains. “These are pigments which can be supposed to cut back infrared absorption, supposed to maintain temperatures decrease within the automobiles. These have gotten functions for them when it comes to pigment association in street automobiles.

“They’ve additionally introduced very matte, IR-reflecting [infra-red] paint that they are going to be utilizing sooner or later in street automobiles. We use it right here in issues just like the dashtop for low reflection, low glare from the windscreen.

“There are components that aren’t within the automotive but when it comes to to do with supplies for the seats and so forth, which have come straight from Dacia street automobiles and naturally, there’s the work they’re serving to us do with sustainable fuels with the partnership with Aramco.”

Dunabin and group principal Tiphanie Isnard are main the Prodrive effort – formally known as the Dacia Sandriders. The British operation that conquered the World Rally Championship with Subaru supplies the motorsport experience wanted to assist the programme shortcut its studying curve.

Sandriders technical director Dunabin has joined the mission from Alpine, evidencing its help for the programme

Photograph by: Dacia

“Once we are doing issues in Dacia, we have to do effectively with the most effective specialist round us, so [that’s] why we’re right here with Prodrive, it is likely one of the most profitable corporations in motorsports,” says Isnard. “For us, it is the most effective associate because the technical supplier for all the event.”

A powerful three-pronged line-up

If a partnership with Prodrive, which has tackled Dakar on the previous 4 years with the BRX Hunter and managed two runner-up finishes, wasn’t sufficient to make you imagine Dacia was taking this critically then the crews that may become familiar with the three-car entry ought to.

5-time Dakar winner Nasser Al-Attiyah is joined by navigator Edouard Boulanger in automotive #200 as he makes an attempt to shut on Stephane Peterhansel’s document of eight wins within the Vehicles class.

One in all rallying’s most well-known names, Sebastien Loeb, returns for an additional crack at getting his first Dakar win after ending third in 2024. The three-time runner-up, twice with Prodrive, can be partnered in his #219 automotive by Fabian Lurquin, whereas the youth of the group comes within the type of Cristina Gutierrez, who raced with Loeb within the Prodrive-run X44 Excessive E group. The Spaniard, who received the Challenger (T3) class on the 2024 Dakar, is joined by Pablo Moreno within the #212 entry.

The drivers have lengthy been helping with the event of all the mission, with Isnard telling Motorsport.com: “They had been actually concerned from the start, they jumped within the automotive as fast as they might. They need to be part of the primary day of the automotive.

“They shortly react and provides suggestions, which is constructive, but additionally on what we have to enhance and so they name me, even on financial institution holidays in France – one was within the pool! However they on a regular basis have questions and ask how the group is, what are the modifications, what would be the automotive for Dakar.”

Having defined how the drivers used digital headsets to get a really feel for the within of the cockpit when on the headquarters early on, Isnard provides: “From the start, the mission was constructed with the crew within the Dacia design workplace. [We] stated ‘what would you like’ after which constructed the design of the automotive round them. It’s their workplace, so it is actually vital for the driving force and navigator as part of the efficiency.”

Integration between driver and group extends far previous simply the technical improvement initially of the mission. Groups basically stay collectively in bivouacs throughout the Dakar rally, so egos need to be left on the door. On Loeb specifically, chief mechanic Alistair ‘Stretch’ Gibson might solely hail the Frenchman.

Gibson has loved working with Loeb, who’s bidding so as to add a primary Dakar win to his bulging CV

Photograph by: Dacia

“He is nice,” says Gibson, unrelated to namesake Alastair who labored for the Prodrive-run BAR Components 1 group within the noughties. “He’s the particular person you see on the telly. He’s shy, he’s quiet, however he’s truly very easy and easy to work with. He isn’t demanding. I used to be fairly stunned; I anticipated a difficult time, however it was fully the other. He simply desires to get within the automotive and drive. As soon as the quantity is on the door, he desires to go and win.

“It is a completely different breed of driver that desires to do Dakar and all these completely different calls for of ‘I would like these drinks or these grapes’ is out the window as a result of you may’t have it – it is not there. We sit and we eat collectively, there’s not a particular catering out the again for the drivers. We sit and eat collectively and all of the groups from the entire bivouac are all collectively.”

Whereas Loeb and Al-Attiyah will take the headlines from the line-up, the group is under no circumstances anticipating Gutierrez to easily make up the numbers.

“We wish a rising younger driver to have with two skilled drivers. Once we noticed the [test] outcomes, it was fairly easy, Christina was the most effective one” Tiphanie Isnard

“I would not low cost Cristina,” insists Gibson. “We noticed by the testing part that she is fairly decided and fairly good at what she does.

“She actually earned the respect of the group round her together with her efficiency within the check. It is not straightforward in Morocco and she or he was fairly powerful, actually good tempo and good suggestions. We had been actually impressed together with her.”

In that test-run throughout the Rallye du Maroc, the place the squad completed 1-2 on debut with Al-Attiyah and Loeb, Gutierrez was serving to the group run shelf-life experiments, utilizing parts that had been utilized in earlier assessments to assist uncover sturdiness ranges of various components – a significant mission as a part of Dakar preparation.

Whereas utilizing a feminine driver in addition to a feminine group principal is a robust business transfer, Isnard is adamant this had no bearing on Gutierrez getting the nod.

“The selection was fairly easy,” she says. “We wish a rising younger driver to have with two skilled drivers. Once we noticed the [test] outcomes, it was fairly easy, Cristina was the most effective one. She is a girl, that is nice, however that was not the primary selection.”

Gutierrez joins the programme after taking a category victory on the 2024 Dakar

Photograph by: Pink Bull Content material Pool

Alpine’s help to grasp Dacia desires

Whereas the Prodrive link-up and crew line-up makes the operation at the least aggressive, the Dacia Sandriders nonetheless need to tackle the would possibly of producers which were Dakar incumbents in latest instances, not least in Toyota. However, being a part of the Renault Group, Dacia has been capable of tackle experience each in personnel and bodily supplies which can assist speed up its effort. Dunabin and Isnard are each Alpine Racing group members who’ve been designated to the mission.

“Inside the Renault Group, the motorsport useful resource is Alpine Racing,” Dunabin explains, “that appears after Components 1, WEC, Components E – the place it takes care of the programme for Nissan – rally with Renault Clios, Rally3, one-make championships and circuit racing. All of that experience in motorsport is held inside Alpine.

“So it’s pure that Dacia got here to Alpine to say ‘we need to use Alpine because the motorsport experience for dealing with our rally raid programme’. That is the place Tiphanie and myself come from. We work completely for Dacia, however we truly work for Alpine.

“There’s an terrible lot of experience. Just lately, we have now completed issues like supplies evaluation inside Alpine for issues on this automotive, electronics evaluation [too]. There’s a entire technical useful resource inside Alpine that may be a disposition of this programme.

“Once you make a street automotive, you do not faux to do every thing your self anyway. Dacia shouldn’t be going to make a steering rack, it’ll know who it desires to go to to put in that. It’s the identical kind of factor on this association. Prodrive have experience in motorsport, they’ve an understanding of rally raid. You then have supervision from Alpine representing Dacia and Dacia utilises all of this useful resource to maximise the profit for his or her programme.”

Talking to Motorsport.com’s Italian sister website throughout a Dacia Sandriders occasion in Italy, Loeb put his enthusiasm for the mission all the way down to the involvement of each Renault and Prodrive.

“Prior to now months I had to choose,” he associated. “I had to decide on a serious mission as a result of my intention was nonetheless to race within the Dakar and the Dacia mission appeared to me the most effective.

“That is all due to the ambitions of the model, of the producer, which concerned me within the mission. Though it’s its first sports activities mission within the self-discipline, it has an enormous, seen, tangible motivation.

Important experience from the BRX mission has transferred to the Dacia programme, together with its driving energy

Photograph by: A.S.O.

“Then I do know a number of individuals concerned; Bruno Famin, the boss of Renault Group so far as motorsport is worried. I additionally know Prodrive effectively, with whom I raced within the Dakar and within the World Rally Raid over the last two seasons. I assumed beginning a mission from scratch with these individuals concerned was a great factor; they might use our expertise made up to now to make a really aggressive automotive.”

Can Dacia conquer the problem of Dakar?

Nevertheless aggressive the automotive is on paper, or how sturdy the line-up and pedigree of all the squad could also be in comparison with rival outfits, the actual check is the circumstances confronted in Saudi Arabia. Virtually 8,000km can be coated throughout 12 levels which can absorb gruelling terrain within the desert warmth – and chilly – of the Center Jap Kingdom, together with the daunting 48-hour, 1057km endurance stage. With bivouacs arrange every night time, any repairs to automobiles have to be completed whereas uncovered to the weather.

“The sandstorm is the worst atmosphere to work in,” Gibson explains. “You may deal with the rain and the chilly and the warmth, however the sandstorm is certainly the worst, particularly if it’s a gearbox or a serious element that wants engaged on. It does occur, and also you simply need to get on with it.”

“The simplest factor to do with Dakar is to screw up. It’s extremely tough to do a Dakar when you do not have issues” Philip Dunabin

“We attempt to keep away from opening a gearbox or engine in that kind of scenario, or any air intakes. However typically, you simply need to get on with it. With the tents, we are able to attempt to pull the edges down.

“Fortunately, it does not occur that usually. Solely twice within the final 4 years have we had a very unhealthy sandstorm within the bivouac, so that they do come. It does current challenges in some ways, from the tents themselves, or the vehicles or the mills – it’s only a characteristic of the panorama.”

With the 1-2 end in Morocco proving the automotive’s velocity, focus since then has been on guaranteeing the reliability is as much as scratch to keep away from a repeat of cooling points.

“Lots of the stuff when it comes to the cooling in Morocco was to do with the reliability facet than anything,” says Dunabin. “We had incidents the place followers would drop out, that kind of factor. When you lose one of many followers out of the system, then the automotive tends to get a bit too sizzling. So most of what we have now been concentrating on is on the reliability facet.

Encouraging debut in Morocco shouldn’t be giving option to overconfidence, though Dunabin hopes cooling points have been remedied

Photograph by: Motorsport.com

“Clearly we completed first and second, we received three out of 5 levels. We had been by no means very far-off from the entrance of the sector and there have been one or two topics the place we sailed a bit too near the wind. These topics are issues we have now been engaged on to get proper for Dakar.”

Whereas the lead to Morocco places Dacia Sandriders in a robust place to ink its identify into the Dakar historical past books, there isn’t a complacency being allowed to creep in.

“The simplest factor to do with Dakar is to screw up,” cautions Dunabin. “It’s extremely tough to do a Dakar when you do not have issues, you do not make any errors – no driving errors, no navigational errors, no technical error, no finger bother. It is an occasion that’s two weeks on, the times are lengthy and all people will get very drained. The vigilance that’s wanted to ship a Dakar is actually on the high stage.

“The very fact we received in Morocco is nice, unbelievable for Dacia – they’ve manufacturing crops in Morocco, they’re by far and away primary when it comes to the gross sales in Morocco and it could not be any higher for the Dacia individuals in Morocco to have the automotive arrive and win the rally. However no, I do not suppose there’s any complacency. We are able to completely not assume we are able to go to Dakar and simply trundle round. Will probably be onerous.”

Can a Dacia win the Dakar Rally?

Photograph by: Dacia