2023 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge: 55 on W2RC entry list

Over a month after the season started on the Dakar Rally, the World Rally-Raid Championship heads to Abu Dhabi for the thirty-second Abu Dhabi Desert Problem. After registration closed Saturday, fifty-five comprise the pre-inspection W2RC grid. Thirty are competing in FIA courses whereas twenty-five are on bikes and quads.

Because the Dakar Rally is the biggest rally raid of the 12 months, it comes with little shock that Abu Dhabi would function a a lot smaller area. Nonetheless, there are many main absentees like T1’s Group Audi Sport, whose subsequent begin would be the season-ending Rallye du Maroc particularly after a disastrous Dakar that resulted in Carlos Sainz and Stéphane Peterhansel‘s co-driver Édouard Boulanger struggling accidents in crashes. Though Peterhansel is the reigning ADDC overall winner, he isn’t amongst these on the entry checklist.

Mattias Ekström, the one Audi member to complete the Dakar, can also be the lone driver of the three to enter Abu Dhabi albeit in a T3 for South Racing. Audi had an association with X-raid Group to area Mini John Cooper Works for the Audi drivers exterior of Dakar and Morocco in the event that they wished, although it seems Sainz and Peterhansel didn’t take up the provide pending a belated or non-championship entry.

Regardless of Audi electing to not defend their victory, the W2RC T1 title battle continues between Sébastien Loeb and Nasser Al-Attiyah, the latter being each the defending Dakar and W2RC champion in addition to the 2021 ADDC winner; Al-Attiyah had additionally received the Desert Problem in 2016. Nonetheless, Loeb’s 9 Dakar stage victories and runner-up end means he has a two-point edge over Al-Attiyah within the T1 standings.

Within the Bikes, Sam Sunderland will hope to go back-to-back now that he has recovered from his accidents sustained at Dakar, as has Ricky Brabec. However, Sunderland’s team-mate Daniel Sanders will miss the rally as a result of damage.

Additionally skipping the race is Rally2 Dakar winner Romain Dumontier, although Rally2 riders are permitted to drop their worst end from their championship standing. After all, his absence blows the doorways open within the meantime for Paolo Lucci and Michael Docherty, who joined him on the category podium within the opener. Konrad Dąbrowski makes his season début after missing Dakar with appendicitis.

Solely 5 Quad riders are entered, with Abdulaziz Ahli main the way in which as he goals for a three-peat.

With many Dakar entrants not returning, these headed to Abu Dhabi latched on with different groups. For instance, Lucas Moraes just isn’t racing regardless of a formidable third-place T1 end at Dakar, although his co-driver Timo Gottschalk will assume the shotgun seat of fellow Toyota Hilux driver Yazeed Al-Rajhi who returns to racing after recovering from chest injuries sustained in a skiing accident. Al-Rajhi and Gottschalk beforehand labored collectively from 2014 to 2019.

Oriol Mena, who received the Dakar T4 total as Eryk Goczał‘s navigator, will transfer as much as T1 to work with Guoyu Zhang. Zhang is one in every of three Chinese language entrants in Abu Dhabi BAIC team-mate Yunliang Zi and Han Wei, the latter being the very best four-wheel Dakar finisher for a Chinese language driver.

It is very important notice that some are usually not on the entry checklist as they aren’t competing for W2RC factors. For instance, Rally2 contains Justin Gerlach, an beginner rider making his first begin in a world championship race, and Benjamin Melot, a daily on the ADDC who completed thirteenth in school at Dakar.

The Abu Dhabi Desert Problem begins with a prologue on 26 February. The race, which can function 1,311 kilometres of Particular Levels, runs by means of 3 March.

FIA entry checklist

T1

T3

T4

FIM entry checklist

RallyGP

Rally2

Quad