Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge – The new life of Nasser Al-Attiyah, facing Mévius and Al-Rajhi

Almost two months after the 2024 Dakar, the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge constitutes the second round of the World Championship season. rally-raid (W2RC). The event will take place from February 26 to March 2, and begins this Monday, February 26 with a prologue.

At the end of the checks of the 33^e edition of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge (ADDC), 91 vehicles are authorized to start the prologue tomorrow. 41 are entered in W2RC including 28 Ultimate, Challenger and SSV crews in the FIA ​​categories.

Among the 15 Ultimate cars entered, Nasser Al-Attiyah's Prodrive Hunter T1+ will undoubtedly be the most scrutinized. And for good reason: the five-time winner of the Dakar and double reigning world champion has changed co-drivers! The Frenchman Mathieu Baumel was in fact replaced by Édouard Boulanger.

Added to this change of navigator are other efforts focused on the Nasser Racing team. The Qatari driver clearly saw that his 4x4 was not strong enough for the 2024 Dakar (abandonment) and has been working on the subject since January.

« After the Dakar, we changed 25% of the car's parts to make them more resistant at my request, confides Nasser Al-Attiyah. The team rebuilt the one here from scratch, everything is new for Abu Dhabi. We also have a new engineer, from Audi, Daniel Gratacos, again at my request.

On Saturday, we did 60 kilometers with Édouard for the first time. I was surprised by his performance and the way he thinks. I don't feel out of place. This is also my decision. We are fortunate to have been able to quickly put all the pieces of the puzzle together, I am happy with that. »

If he finally wants to launch his campaign in a good way, Nasser Al-Attiyah will have to battle against the winner of ADDC 2023, Yazeed Al-Rajhi. The Overdrive Racing driver relies on the strength of his Toyota Hilux T1+ Evo to hold its own against its Qatari rival.

« Our goal is to attack and win. The ADDC is not an easy challenge, it's up to us to be intelligent and run a clean race to get the maximum number of points. But we will also have to remain careful with compressions because for the moment a rear suspension problem on our car has not been resolved. (abandonment in the Dakar after several rollovers. Editor’s note) . We still have work to do. The team must carry out this work on the Evo. »

Finally, the third thief may well be Guillaume de Mévius. Also entered on a Toyota Hilux T1+, the Belgian, a real revelation of the Dakar 2024 (a stage victory and 2nd overall) does not want to put too much pressure on himself. « We did something incredible on the Dakar, but I know I'm still young in the discipline, He explains.

We have to remain realistic, we have to build our championship, why not fight for victory because we still have quite a few points. But I don't want to put pressure on myself. It's my first year in Ultimate, I don't need to show that I know how to win races, rather that I know how to go to the end of the championship. This is my goal and my strategy.

Note that Sébastien Loeb does not participate in ADDC. The Alsatian is focusing on the development of the future Dacia Sandrider before the debut of the Romanian 4×4 planned for the Rallye du Maroc next October.

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