PRODRIVE

 2024 could be Nasser Al Attiyah's year. For two reasons. Firstly, and in chronological order, because he will be setting out to conquer a sixth Dakar title, possibly his third consecutive. A treble that only Ari Vatanen and Pierre Lartigue have achieved before him in a car. His other challenge will come at the end of July/beginning of August, at the National Shooting Centre in Chateauroux during the Paris Olympic Games. The Qatari will be competing in his 7th Olympiad, hoping to win a second medal in skeet after the bronze he won in London 2012. But let's return to his first mission. The 53-year-old could have opted for the easy way out by sticking with the ultra-competitive Toyota Hilux T1+ that he drove to the title in 2019, 2022 and 2023. No, Al Attiyah is taking on a new challenge. By joining the Prodrive team, he dreams of winning with a fourth different vehicle: a Volkswagen Race Touareg in 2011, a Mini in 2015, a Toyota and therefore a Hunter for this new edition. It's a challenge partly calculated in the knowledge that his car has already flirted with victory, driven by Sebastien Loeb, his runner-up in 2022 and 2023.

After a Dakar in which he slammed the door on the evening of stage 8 after suffering one mechanical problem too many, the man who holds two W2RC titles and had already won the World Cup five times, has decided to wipe the slate clean. Al Attiyah has had 25% of the Hunter revised by the Prodrive team, which has been revamped for the occasion, and he has parted company with his co-driver, with whom he had been associated since 2014. After four wins on the Dakar and a one-two finish in the W2RC, Mathieu Baumel has handed over his seat to Edouard Boulanger for Round 2 of the calendar. The former “mapman” with KTM and Toyota, whom Nasser had already worked with at the time, had been in charge of navigation for Stéphane Peterhansel since the end of 2020, who played a key role in the final victory with Peugeot. A new chapter for these two references in the discipline, which should continue from the Moroccan final in Dacia's Sandrider.