EBRO Audax Motorsport is already on its way to its first Dakar Rally adventure. The Spanish team departed this Tuesday, 30 December, bound for Saudi Arabia to take part in the 48th edition of the world’s toughest rally, which will run from 3 to 17 January with start and finish in Yanbu. At the wheel of the EBRO s800 XRR, Laia Sanz will contest her 16th Dakar, and her first defending the team’s colours in the top class (Ultimate) / T1+ category.
The team set off from Josep Tarradellas Barcelona–El Prat Airport and, after a brief connection in Doha, will land in Yanbu tomorrow, Wednesday 31 December, to carry out the final preparations before the competition begins.
The 20-time world champion tackles her fifth Dakar in cars with co-driver Maurizio Gerini, and her first with a T1+ in the Ultimate category. She is determined to manage what already looks like a difficult Dakar right from the start: “I think it’s going to be a very tough rally, in line with the last two years, and perhaps even more demanding. There will be a lot of navigation and long days, so we’ll have to be smart and play our cards well. We’ll need to take it easy in the first few days, without rushing. As the rally goes on, we’ll see where we can be and how far we can go,” Sanz explains.
The route consists of a prologue and 13 stages, with a rest day in Riyadh and a total of 7,994 kilometres, almost 4,900 of them against the clock. The 2026 edition features a format focused on endurance, navigation and mechanical management, including two marathon stages in which crews must be entirely self-reliant, with no external assistance.
A wide variety of terrain will shape the event: rocky areas, fast tracks, sections requiring complex navigation and extensive stretches of sand and dunes — especially in the second week. Although the route will not enter the Empty Quarter, the length of the special stages and the accumulation of kilometres will pose a real challenge for both drivers and vehicles.
“We’ll need maximum concentration for every single kilometre. Stages with more stones are always a lottery, but overall I think this will be a Dakar where consistency and reading each situation correctly will make the difference. I’m taking on this edition with great motivation and the extra excitement of being part of a new and inspiring project like EBRO Audax Motorsport. The feeling is good, so we’ll try to manage the rally well right from the start,” says the Catalan.
In the car category, 158 vehicles will start, 72 of them in Ultimate — including 58 T1+ like the EBRO s800 XRR. The presence of the world’s best rally-raid specialists further raises the competitive bar and underlines the size of the challenge facing EBRO Audax Motorsport in its Dakar debut.
For the team, this participation represents a key step in its sporting project. In its first Dakar, the objective is to finish the event and achieve a competitive result that will help consolidate the foundations of its programme in the most demanding race on the international calendar.
With the prologue scheduled for 3 January, EBRO Audax Motorsport and Laia Sanz are ready to begin a historic adventure, taking on the challenge of competing at the highest level in the toughest rally in the world.
Source: EBRO Audax Motorsport
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