Dakar Rally with new route in Saudi Arabia

In a presentation that took place in Saudi Arabia, the Amaury Sport Organization (ASO) also announced that the 43rd edition of the event will start on January 3rd, in Jeddah, ending in the same city, on January 15th, after 11 stages and one prologue, which will determine the starting order for the first round.

The next edition of the race will have a marathon stage and two in a loop, which helps to minimize the need for travel, but the route will only be known in November.

Another novelty for the next edition is the creation of the Dakar Classic category, for cars and trucks built before the year 2000.

David Castera also announced that the organization had learned its lesson from the deaths of Portuguese driver Paulo Gonçalves and Dutchman Edwin Straver, both following high speed motorcycle crashes in the 2020 edition.

In 2021, it will be the third consecutive year that the race will take place entirely in the same country, after the same has already happened in 2019, in Peru, and this year, in Saudi Arabia.