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For a lot of us, it’s the most wonderful time of the year—and I’m not talking about the Christmas season. We’re about to see the 2023 Dakar Rally kick off, and if you’re into off-road racing, this is the top event of the year. So what’s happening this year? What rulebook changes are there, what’s the route, and are there any big personnel moves? Read on!
Back to Saudi Arabia
The race returns to Saudi Arabia this year, covering 8,549 kilometers from December 31 through January 14. Total distance of special stages adds up to 4,706 km. This year’s race runs east-to-west, starting at the Red Sea’s new Beach Camp and ending at the Arabian Sea, with a four-day run through the Empty Quarter’s wastelands along the way. While many Dakar fans are unhappy with the race organization’s decision to run the race completely in Saudi Arabia for the past few years, hopefully the route is getting better and better as the map-planners strategize their way through the landscape.
The 2023 route: Image: Dakar
Rulebook updates
The org website lists two changes to the motorcycle rules this year, listed below.
First up, the organizers are trying to eliminate the see-saw effect, where some riders end up sandbagging so they aren’t forced to open the track the next day and lose their advantage. Now, finishing first on a stage can potentially give you a massive time bonus:
Motorbikes: the early bird gets the time bonus
The rules that determine the starting position of each biker have a roller-coaster effect that punishes the winner of the previous stage with the arduous task of opening the road. To make sure that fortune continues to favour the bold, a compensation system has been implemented to reward those who lead the race from the front. In virtually every stage, the instant transmission of passage times at the waypoints between the start of the special and the refuelling stop (about 200 km on average) will determine which riders have been at the front and will receive the following time bonuses: 1.5 s/km for the first; 1 s/km for the second; and 0.5 s/km for the third. Example: if the biker who started first opens the road for 200 kilometres, he or she will receive a 300 s bonus (i.e. 5 minutes), while the second one will be awarded 200 s (3′20″) and the third one will get 100 s (1′40″).
That ought to bring in all sorts of new mathematical wrangling into the F5irehose thread!
As well, there are changes to the malle moto class:
Original by Motul: you only win once
Original by Motul is a competition for die-hard bikers who make the conscious choice to tackle the Dakar in hard mode. Now, the bar for admission to this select club has been raised even further. Bikers who have won races at a high level or who have been professional riders at some point in their rally raid career will no longer appear in the Original standings. Of course, those who wish to can still race without assistance, follow the same way of life and even serve as Original by Motul ambassadors. Furthermore, in another change designed to favour amateur riders, former winners of the category will no longer be eligible for the win.
This year, the initial ASO message was that riders would use all-digital roadbooks (much to the displeasure of some riders), and there would going to be different A-to-B routes for riders, so they’re not all sent along the same tracks. This would force them to do their own navigation and not rely on following wheeltracks. It would also inevitably create a massive crapstorm of controversy that the ASO will dismiss with Parisian loftiness.
Now, it seems that this is not the case, at least not for the top RallyGP class; riders in other classes may have a choice between electronic or paper books, it seems. The messaging from the org has been very unclear.
Aside from those changes, nothing major this year, far as we’ve heard, and that’s probably because we saw a lot of big changes last year as the Dakar Rally became part of the FIM’s Cross Country Rallies season. Just like last year, some riders will be able to re-enter the race if they bungle a stage. They won’t be able to challenge for the overall win, but they can take individual stage wins (remember when newcomer Danilo Petrucci had to exit the stage last year, then returned to take a podium on another stage?). No doubt this rulebook decision will continue to be controversial in years to come, just like the move to Saudi Arabia. However, for 2023, RallyGP riders cannot re-enter. As per the rulebook:
Art. 80.17.9 No start or abandon in a Selective Section/Stage RallyGP Category: A competitor in this category who does not start a stage (DNS) or who retires during a stage (DNF) will be disqualified and removed from the FIM rankings and will not receive any points for the FIM World Championship. He will not be allowed to continue the event unranked.
Personnel changes
Going into the race, Sam Sunderland is both the 2022 Dakar champion as well as the winner of the FIM’s Cross Country Rallies series. Things can change quickly at Dakar, so while he is the man to beat, any fan knows that he could earn a DNF on the first stage that rules him out of the win.
The biggest change in the 2022 off-season was Yamaha canceling its factory team, after participation in every Dakar since the start in the 1970s. That finally freed up Adrien Van Beveren, who’d long suffered at Yamaha; when he wasn’t getting into trouble of his own causing, Van Beveren was being let down by his bike. Now, he’s signed with Honda, and he seemed to adapt well to his new machine in the Cross Country Rallies series. But will that translate to success at Dakar? Maybe, maybe not!
Adrien Van Beveren and the CRF450 RALLY. Photo: Honda
With Pablo Quintanilla moving to Honda last season, Big Red’s Dakar team has undergone a fairly major makeover from its South American years; Joan Barreda Bort is now off the factory squad and racing for his own team, Monster Energy JB. The 39-year-old rider still finished fifth at the 2022 race, so despite some naysayers poo-pooing his age, he’s still faster than most of the pack. It will be interesting to see his results this season.
As for Ross Branch, he’s at Hero’s factory team now that Yamaha folded.
If you’re wondering about the top American riders: Ricky Brabec returns for Honda’s factory team, Skyler Howes returns for the Husqvarna factory team, and Mason Klein returns with BAS World.
In the female category, Mirjam Pol returns for HT Rally Raid; she’s probably the top-rated female rider this season.
Find a lot more info on the 2023 Dakar in forum threads here and here, and for up-to-the-minute data (or as close as we can get) during the race, watch the Racing sub-forum for the F5irehose thread to be unveiled!
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