Dacia Sandriders begins its adventure at Dakar 2026. The desert race is held in Saudi Arabia
Debut at last year's edition, Dacia returns to the Dakar Rally. The manufacturer's drivers, Nasser Al-Attiyah, Sébastian Loeb and Lucas Moraes, aim for the overall victory with the Sandriders model.
Dacia revs its engines PHOTO gazzetta.it
With 21 Dakar starts and five victories to his credit, the Qatari prince brings top performance and pedigree. Three-time W2RC champion and runner-up in 2025, Nasser is aiming for a fourth W2RC title, which eluded him due to a controversial penalty in the last kilometer of the final stage in Rallye Morocco.
The Dacia Sandrider features several updates such as weight reduction, cooling efficiency, visibility, reliability and driver comfort. Based on the experience of the last Dakar Rally and the feedback received from the drivers throughout the season, the main improvements to the car include: lighter body panels to improve agility and efficiency, a redesigned rear section with the removal of the luggage compartment, a new air intake with a short Dakar-specific snorkel, a repositioned air filter box, improvements to the cooling system, new FIA homologated connecting rods to improve engine reliability, updates engine software to optimize power delivery within FIA limits and a new on-board camera system for performance analysis.
“Our target is clear: we want to win“, says the young director of the team, Tiphanie Iznard “To achieve this, we strengthened the team with a fourth car and built a balanced driver line-up capable of performing at the highest level. Crews and pilots are ready. From a technical point of view, I brought the car to maturity. It has demonstrated high performance on all types of terrain, from dunes to fast tracks, and that's exactly what awaits us at the Dakar“, added the bosses.
