In September, Audi revealed its significantly upgraded electric Dakar entry, the RS Q e-tron E2. This was followed by a recent announcement from the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship’s Committee that a balance of performance shift in the T1.U class for prototype cars using renewable energies – which includes the RS Q e-tron E2 – will see entries granted an additional 15kW, which is believed to be worth 21bhp.
Asked by Autosport if this made Audi the main concern for the outright victory, Al Attiyah offered a blunt assessment.
"Audi? I give them just three days and they will go home, you saw it in Morocco and Aragon after a hundred kilometres," he said.
Despite claiming during the 2023 event that the organisers were "killing the race early” by offering Audi more power, Al Attiyah has mellowed and added: "It's not my decision. We have to accept it because the FIA has another vision. We will see during the first three days that Audi will be fast."
Al Attiyah is seeking to defend his Dakar crown and secure a third consecutive Touareg Trophy in this year's event.
The Dakar Rally caravan arrived at the first of the bivouacs for the 2024 edition alongside a confident Al Attiyah, who is seeking to defend the title he won 12 months ago and secure a sixth overall crown.
The Qatari driver has changed colours between campaigns and will represent Prodrive this time around before the team becomes the factory Dacia entry.
The five-time Dakar Rally winner and reigning World Rally-Raid Championship champion explained: "The reason I changed is because I have a contract with Dacia for next year. It will be for three seasons with the team, so at least we have feedback and I know the people, that's the reason why I changed."
Although Prodrive's 2023 Dakar efforts were severely hampered by poor reliability, Al Attiyah remained confident that his driving skill could avoid such pitfalls.
"If you look at Toyota's track record, every car has had a problem, except mine, because the Dakar has its tricks, and all the cars are the same," he said.
"Today, if every day you go to the maximum, you will have a problem, but you need to think about everything going to the limit, it's not about the reliability of the Toyota or the Hunter, no.
"If you look at the history of Toyota, we had more than 15 cars in every edition and all of them had setbacks, except for mine. That's my secret, I can't tell you, I need to keep it because it's very important to treat your car, to have a good position and speed, otherwise, you will break it."
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