Minaudier and Sarradori will embark on the Dakar adventure for the ninth time

Après des mois de préparation, Loïc Minaudier et Mathieu Serradori sont impatients d’être en course. D.R

À bord de leur buggy deux roues motrices, ils ambitionnent de jouer les premiers rôles.

Loïc Minaudier, 36, is six days away from the start of the 2024 Dakar which will take place from January 5 to 19 in Saudi Arabia. This Sunday, he will join the Serradori Racing team (SRT) in Fréjus, in the Var, and driver Mathieu Serradori. Both team up for the third consecutive time aboard the Century Racing CR6 two-wheel drive buggy.

This will be Saint-Affricain's ninth participation in the Dakar, he has finished them all, and the ninth also for the Varois. "We will work on the last details and the race regulations," specifies Loïc Minaudier. Monday January 1st, the team will fly to Marseille, direction Paris, then Saudi Arabia. The support team of mechanics and drivers are flying today to collect the support trucks in Saudi Arabia.

Fear for the weather

On Tuesday January 2, Loïc Minaudier and Mathieu Serradori will test their buggy on site. The days of Wednesday January 3 and Thursday January 4 will be devoted to the general briefing. The race itself will begin on Friday January 5, in Alula, with the prologue. But one point that catches Loïc Minaudier's attention is the weather which is “really bad at the moment on site with floods and hail. The one announced from January 1 to 6 does not look very good. These are difficult parameters for everyone, but especially for the assistance and mechanics who will work at night."

“First experience the adventure”

At the 2023 Dakar, in Saudi Arabia, the crew finished 3rd in the two-wheel drive category (T1.2) and 12th overall in the car category. "When a private driver performs among the factory teams, we are monitored even more, analyzes Loïc Minaudier. We must be very vigilant about the regulations, down to the comma. We will do everything to be where we are expected. It’s first and foremost living the adventure. We will have to rehearse our ranges and what we know how to do. We are lucky that the race today has good sporting fairness. I think this is a point that makes us even more motivated."

"We know very well that the first week will be very tough. The Dakar boss said his goal was to continue even more in the DNA of the Dakar. He recognized that the first week would be difficult and full of surprises with this famous 48-hour stage where lots of things will happen." All competitors will leave from Shubaytah for two days, without assistance, in the Empty Quarter desert with 100% dunes and 626 km of timed special. "We're going to be in the thick of things from the start," underlines Loïc Minaudier. "We will have to be in the rhythm and avoid all these traps. The Dakar is quickly lost."

Limit errors

"The hardest race in the Dakar is the one against yourself. The best and most rewarded crews are those who make the smallest mistakes. We know very well that no day or no step is simple. We cannot afford to take things lightly. It's up to us to be very intelligent because the pace of the first days often knocks a lot of people out. I think that with Mathieu, our experience should allow us to channel all this, the enthusiasm, the management of equipment and the unforeseen parameters."

After months of preparation, the crew is impatient to go out and fully experience this new adventure. "On the moral side, everything is good," confides the Saint-Affricain. "On the mechanical side, we knock on wood, because the whole team did what was necessary. As for my role as co-pilot, it is to find the right path in the desert. I have to be the car boss. In rally raid, the driver knows how to go fast. But without our common work, it cannot go quickly. We must be in harmony, in fusion. We worked on all that."

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