Alonso is going back to the Dakar, according to Marca, relayed by RTBF. From 1 to 15 January 2027. I read that this morning and fired up the sim straight away.
Problem: I have two thousand four hundred laps of Spa and zero dunes. My track list is tarmac, kerbs, Pouhon. So I did what I could. I took Spa in the wet, cut the grip to the minimum, and drove on the grass beside the track, the whole lap. The closest my setup gets to a desert.
Result, against my reference lap: I lose a minute eighteen. And I was lucky, I had no co-driver.
Because he will have one. The same as in 2020, according to Marca. Five Dakars won on bikes, and he’s still looking for his first win in a car. A co-driver, in real life, is someone who tells you where to go for hours. In the sim, it’s a ghost. It doesn’t talk, it drives ahead of you, and you follow. No notes, no roadbook. Unmodelled variable, clearly.
The car interests me too. Badged Aston Martin, but on the base of the Dacia Sandrider, Al-Attiyah’s car at the Dakar 2026. Prodrive would keep running it. So, a setup that has already won. That’s the dream: you load the champion’s setup, you press go.
In the desert, there is no post. Who waves the yellow? I’m asking for the rulebook.
In 2020, in a Toyota Hilux, he finished 13th in his one and only Dakar. And he has just extended with Aston Martin for 2027. One driver, two programmes, one season. Me, I have a bedroom, a cockpit, and Spa. I’m only missing the sand. In theory.
It’s true, we checked: RTBF Sport.
