After years in which the Dakar Rally was seen as an outsider in the world of motorsport, the FIA has now decided to work hand-in-hand with the organiser of the legendary event.
In addition to creating the new FIA World Rally Raid Championship (of which the Dakar is the first event, with double points), the two have established a regulatory basis to attract as many car manufacturers as possible.
The first major step has been to bring together the reference drivers in the T1+ category, which is made up solely of 4×4 prototypes with a width of 2.3 metres, 350mm of suspension travel, 37-inch wheels and a minimum weight of 2000kg.
Prodrive, through its Bahrain Raid Xtreme team, Toyota Gazoo Racing and Martin Prokop have created prototypes that fit into this division, which adopts almost all the features of the buggies that have won the past two Dakars thanks to the good work of Carlos Sainz Sr, Stephane Peterhansel and the X-raid Mini team. The main exception is the system for…
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