The 47th edition of the Dakar has set a date for the world's rally-raiders in Saudi Arabia from 3 to 17 January.
More information:
https://www.dakar.com
https://www.facebook.com/Dakar
https://www.twitter.com/Dakar
https://www.instagram.com/DakarRally
#Dakar2025
© Amaury Sport Organisation - https://www.aso.fr
More information:
https://www.dakar.com
https://www.facebook.com/Dakar
https://www.twitter.com/Dakar
https://www.instagram.com/DakarRally
#Dakar2025
© Amaury Sport Organisation - https://www.aso.fr
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SportTranscription
00:00More and more manufacturers are coming on the Dakar and Defender is the most recent
00:07one to show up.
00:08Come 2026, the British brand will be taking on the rally with three cars and joining W2RC
00:14with two, and all that in the stock category for production machines.
00:17It's about the most iconic rally in the world with the most iconic SUV.
00:22So really exciting times.
00:24The first time in the history that the Defender brand has come with a full factory works team
00:28to the Dakar rally.
00:30We think the hearts and minds of fans around the world is to see a car that they can buy
00:34on the road competing in the Dakar rally, and not just one brand, but three, four or
00:38five brands with production-based cars.
00:41The presence of Defender is due to the change in regulations decided by the FIA to make
00:46the stock category for production vehicles more exciting, a way to attract more brands.
00:53The Dakar is much more demanding than ten years ago, let's say.
00:56So we needed to reshuffle completely the rules because the current T2 class was at
01:01the end of a cycle, let's say.
01:05We still start from a production 4x4, but we give them much more capabilities.
01:09Power will be based on the weight of the car to make sure that the car can climb the dunes,
01:14for example.
01:15The wheel travel also will be much more important than what we have at the moment.
01:18The cars will have a cost cap, minimum production, so we wanted to make sure that cars will be
01:24available on the market for customers.
01:26So it's a new ecosystem that will be built.
01:31We're confident in the Defender that we have a fantastic product in our all-aluminium,
01:37what we call a D7X architecture, which is incredibly stiff, three times stiffer than
01:41a normal construction for the car.
01:44We don't underestimate the challenge, right?
01:46It's about trying to be successful, but Dakar is almost more than that, right?
01:50It's about adventure, it's about the test of human and machine together.
01:54That's why Dakar has to be more than a one or a two-year program, you have to come, compete
01:59and learn.