2027 Dakar Rally moving venue

The 2027 Dakar Rally was set to start on 1 January and run until the 15th. The upcoming race will be the 49th edition of the rally raid classic. As with the last seven events, it was scheduled to take place entirely within the borders of Saudi Arabia. However, the Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO), the event’s organiser has been forced to move the race to completely new locations for the 2027 edition.

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Another victim

Recent hostilities between the Yemen’s Houthi rebels and the Kingdom place a severe question over teams’ safety. A recent attack at Riyadh’s International Airport left 12 dead and 300 injured. That is not the kind of occurrence that instils confidence in teams from around the world that have to fly in to the country. These hostilities mean that the rally will be relocated from Saudi Arabia to Europe and Africa. This is the fifth international motorsport series to suffer due to hostilities in the wider region after F1, MotoGP, WEC and WRC. The latter was supposed to end its season in Saudi Arabia, but instead ended in Sardinia.

New Route

The 2027 Dakar Rally will retain the full Dakar format, with a Prologue scheduled for Portugal on 9 January, about a week later than originally planned. Stage 1 will also take place in the same area. Following the opening stage in Europe competitors will be ferried across to Africa.

Eleven stages over more than 4 300 km of timed sections will follow, with a traditional rest day halfway through. The bulk of race the will take place in Morocco with the finish set for 22 January. The route will initially head south along the Atlas Mountains via Zagora, then Agadir, where the caravan will take a 24-hour break. The second part of the race will take in the little-explored deserts of the country’s far south. It will then head back north along the Atlantic Ocean to reach the finish near Marrakech.

David Castera, Dakar director said: “The relocated 49th edition of the Dakar will meet the sporting standards that have always made it the most demanding rally-raid event. Despite the short timeframe we have had to work with, we have designed a true Dakar. The ACP (Automóvel Club de Portugal) is supporting us in Portugal, having established its round of the FIA-FIM World Rally-Raid Championship as a cornerstone of the season since 2024.

“And in Morocco, our expertise across the entire territory, combined with the operational capabilities of our internal teams, allows us to go far beyond the formats previously offered in the country: competitors will discover the Kingdom from one end to the other. We will explore all its distinctive features through a route of unprecedented scale. Here too, the country’s expertise in hosting major international events, as well as the quality of its infrastructure, will be invaluable in enabling us to offer everyone a truly first-class Dakar.”

Returning home

This marks a return of the Dakar Rally to Africa after almost two decades. The race’s departure from its spiritual home came with a last minute cancellation in 2008 due to terrorist threats in Mauritania. Original routes since inception in 1978 took racers from Paris to Dakar (in Senegal) as they negotiated some of the most beautiful and unchartered terrain in the world. At one point the finish was at the very tip of Africa as the race was called the Paris-Le Cap. Yep, it finished right in Cape Town.

The ‘Dakar’ found a new home as it crisscrossed South America for over a decade from 2009 to 2019. Saudi Arabia then open its borders to the race, where it has taken place since 2020. Vast open plains and spectacular dunes provided a tough challenge for crews as they traversed The Empty Quarter. As much as we wished that it, once again, raced on South African soil, the stages in Morocco make sense. The North African country recently played host to the W2RC, of which the Dakar Rally is the opening round. The Rallye du Maroc took place just a few weeks ago, which means that there are stages that could be used for the 2027 Dakar Rally.