Dakar is one of the few top level off-road events Loeb hasn't won
Red Bull
As motor sport challenges go, there’s little that tops the Dakar.
The physical and mental test in an unforgiving Saudi Arabian desert, from relentless sand dunes to seemingly endless expanses of arid and treacherous terrain, means just finishing is difficult enough – never mind driving fast enough to win.
That’s the only target on Sébastien Loeb and his Prodrive team’s minds though, now having their third crack in the Dakar-bespoke T1 Hunter, with technical director David Lapworth saying the formidable event is all about “the unknowns you know and the unknowns you don’t know.”
The WRC’s most successful ever driver and his famous team have had a pretty steep yet successful learning curve in the desert so far.
Nine-time World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb might have thought he’d seen it all in rallying. But that was before the 2021 Dakar. Clouds of dust weren’t the only obstacle for…
Their first effort in 2021, though not without promising pace, left the Frenchman stranded in the desert twice as a result of mechanical and operational errors.
In 2022 Loeb and co were right on it but an early navigational error meant there was simply too much of a deficit to claw back to eventual winner Nasser Al-Attiyah, with the Prodrive man coming in second.
Now though, Lapworth says Prodrive has left no stone unturned in its bid to conquer the desert.
“We’re not missing anything – we won the last two events [in the World Rally Raid Championship],” he emphasises.
“In terms of where we feel with performance, the basic kind of reliability of the car, whether the drivers have been well prepared, we’re where we want it to be.”
“That American spoke about the unknowns you know and the unknowns you don’t know”
The 2021 entry revealed the Hunter simply didn’t have big enough wheels to take on the Saudi off-road environment, parts were mislabelled (elongating Loeb’s desert sleepover when his car broke down) and in 2022 the navigational efforts clearly fell short of what was needed.
However, despite addressing these issues and preparing with acute attention to detail, Lapworth admits the Dakar is still looking to be Prodrive’s greatest challenge yet.
“There’s so many things that can happen, you just can’t be overconfident,” he says.
“There was that American [Donald Rumsfeld] who spoke about the unknowns you know and the unknowns you don’t know.
“The navigation and the rocks in the middle of the road are the stuff I would say are the unknowns we know.
“I think the lesson that everybody learns and even the people with decades of Dakar experience say is that there are still some things you have no prior experience of happening every year.”
Britain’s Sam Sunderland won the Bike category for the second time at Dakar, whilst Nasser Al-Attiyah defeated Sébastien Loeb in the Car class
It’s not just the unforgiving landscape Prodrive and Loeb have to worry about – last year the event was one by one of the masters of the discipline, Nasser Al-Attiyah.
Lapworth knows that beating a driver Loeb admits can “read the desert” like no other will be some achievement
“Nasser and his co-driver [Mathieu Baumel] will be very difficult to beat,” Lapworth says.
“He’s got that instinct and experience that makes him a very, very tough benchmark in the desert. When it comes to the navigation, they always seem to be half a step ahead of everybody else.
“We’ve done our best with all kinds of exercises and so on with our drivers and co-drivers to try and improve side of things.”
Though they might seem similar, Prodrive’s tech guru also highlights the difference between a WRC approach to rallying and the long slog of the Dakar.
“In the WRC, most of the time your judgment is the speed you can carry into a corner,” he says. “You do have some decisions to make about speed you can carry over a jump, a rough section, or a river crossing, but statistically, they’re relatively small compared to the decisions you have to make on every braking point and the entry speed for each corner.
Lapworth says Dakar is “huge risk and reward game”
Red Bull
“The risk is pretty binary – you either get it right and you get around the corner or you crash.
“But in Dakar, you’ve got this extra dimension, there are a lot more things going on in the ‘Z-axis’”
“Jumps, rocks, all kinds of things that you have to slow down for that aren’t corners. The judgment there is ‘What can the car take? Are we going to get a puncture? Will I break the suspension?’ It’s a huge risk and reward game.’”
In taking on the challenge Prodrive does have a not-so-secret weapon – the greatest rally driver of all time.
“The great thing of working with Seb is how clear and simple everything is,” Lapworth says.
“Very good judgment, a very calm approach to the way he goes about developing the car and getting it to where he wants to be.
“He quickly forms an opinion about where he feels the sweet spot is. And once you’re there, he focuses on the bigger picture very well, which is making the best out of what we’ve got. He’s unemotional, but in a good way.”
Whilst Lapworth says the T1 Hunter will this year be an “evolution” rather than revolution, still running on Coryton’s 90% sustainable biofuel and with bodywork made from recyclable fibres, just getting the cars fully built and sent over to Saudi has been a challenge in itself.
In a world with rising inflation and shipping costs, Lapworth highlights the increased difficulties of running a race team.
“The last two years have been a massive wake-up call,” he says. “The world is a more and more difficult place to get things done.
“You just can’t rely on availability of raw materials, specialist components, whatever. The world has changed in the last couple of years, everything is harder and takes a bit longer than it used to.”
Though remaining realistic, ultimately Lapworth is bullish – Prodrive is in Dakar to win.
“If we lose 45 minutes in Stage 1, which is what happened to a lot of people last year, it’ll completely turn the event upside down,” he says.
“If we have a clean run, I think Seb is gonna take some beating. If he doesn’t get lost and the wheels don’t fall off, I think we’re competitive.”
