Four Dacia Crews, Zero Confirmed Seats: The Dakar 2027 Driver Market as of August 2026

Status: 22 August 2026

As of today, none of the four Dacia Sandriders crews has a confirmed Ultimate cockpit for the Dakar Rally 2027. That covers all eight people, drivers and navigators: Nasser Al-Attiyah and Fabian Lurquin, Sebastien Loeb and Edouard Boulanger, Lucas Moraes and Dennis Zenz, Cristina Gutierrez and Pablo Moreno. The reigning Dakar winner is among them. No signing has been announced by any manufacturer, and the drivers themselves are saying so openly.

That is the short answer. The longer one is more interesting, because it explains how the strongest lineup in the desert ended up on the market at the worst possible moment in the calendar.

How We Got Here

Dacia won the 2026 Dakar Rally with Al-Attiyah and Lurquin in only its second attempt. Weeks later, the brand confirmed to Motorsport.com that the Sandrider project ends at the close of the 2026 World Rally Raid Championship season. The final round in Abu Dhabi is the last chapter, and a Dakar 2027 entry has been ruled out entirely. We covered the decision in detail when it broke, in why a Dakar winning project is ending so soon.

The reasoning is unusual but consistent. The programme was built to win the Dakar inside a three year cycle. It did it in two. The objective was reached, the team now wants the world title, and after that the brand returns its focus to its core business.

The consequence for the driver market was immediate. Four top crews were freed months later than the usual contract cycle, into a top class that has maybe a dozen genuine works seats in total.

Where Each Crew Stands Right Now

Nasser Al-Attiyah and Fabian Lurquin. The most striking case, because he is the current winner and a multiple rally raid world champion. At the end of July he confirmed he has nothing signed. His preference is to stay with the Prodrive built car under a different badge, and his fallback is a return to Toyota, where he raced from 2017 to 2023. He also pointed at a structural problem for everyone in his position: for 2027, most teams already have their contracts and drivers locked in.

Sebastien Loeb and Edouard Boulanger. Loeb has been looking for a new team since the exit was announced, after Dakars with Peugeot, Prodrive and Dacia, and is publicly relaxed about it. He has made contacts at Ford, but Ford's top line is effectively settled now that Carlos Sainz has renewed, which leaves Toyota as the more open door. Nothing is confirmed.

Lucas Moraes and Dennis Zenz. The world champion left Toyota for Dacia for the 2026 season and is now in the same holding pattern. There has been no separate announcement about his 2027 plans. He is consistently listed alongside the other three as unattached.

Cristina Gutierrez and Pablo Moreno. Her situation carries a particular sting: she and Moreno had renewed with Dacia through the Dakar 2027, a contract that now outlives the programme it was written for. She has been the most open of the four about the uncertainty, and about the fact that for now she remains a Dacia driver while looking at options.

A Note on the Navigators

Almost all reporting on this story tracks the drivers. Lurquin, Boulanger, Zenz and Moreno are in the same position by definition, since their seats end with the programme, but there is no public confirmation of their individual contract status. In practice, top level navigators move with their driver, and their fate will be decided by whatever deal the driver lands. It is a reminder of how thin the coverage of the right hand seat still is, given that the navigator is half of the result.

The Variable That Decides Most of This: Prodrive

Prodrive ran the Dacia factory effort from the start, and it is not planning to disappear. David Richards has confirmed the company is in discussions with two or three manufacturers about a 2027 Dakar programme, and the existing Sandrider could be rebadged and adapted for a new brand rather than designed from scratch. His stated timeline was to be able to talk about the 2027 Dakar plan by the later part of the summer.

We are inside that window right now. If Prodrive lands a manufacturer, at least two and possibly three of these crews have somewhere to go almost overnight, because the car, the engineering team and the logistics already exist. If it does not, the market gets very tight very fast.

Elsewhere, Toyota has confirmed a Dakar 2027 entry with a hydrogen fuel cell Hilux prototype, which runs in the experimental Mission 1000 category rather than the Ultimate class, so it creates no extra works seat. X-raid Mini and the smaller prototype outfits remain the secondary route.

What to Watch Over the Next Weeks

The Rallye du Maroc in late September and the Abu Dhabi season finale are the natural moments for announcements, and they are also where the 2026 world title will be decided between Dacia team mates. Entry lists for the 49th Dakar, which runs 1 to 15 January 2027 in Saudi Arabia, will start to firm up in the same period. Expect the first confirmed 2027 signings to land before those events rather than after.

Our view at TimeOut Racing: it would be genuinely strange to see a Dakar without Al-Attiyah, and the market will almost certainly find room for him and for Loeb. The harder questions are around Moraes, who gave up a Toyota seat to join a programme that ended a year early, and around Gutierrez, whose contract ran further than the project itself.

The Other Way onto the Entry List

One more thought, because it is the part of this story we know from the inside. There are maybe a dozen works seats in the Ultimate class, and as this saga shows, even a reigning Dakar winner can find himself without one. A works seat cannot be bought.

A place on the Dakar entry list can be earned another way. The Dakar Classic runs the same bivouac, the same desert and the same finish line, and it is built for private crews. Nobody hands you the seat, you bring your own car and your own determination, and the path from first idea to start line is more accessible than most people assume. We support crews on exactly that path, and we will be in the bivouac at the Dakar 2027 either way.

We will update this article as soon as anything is confirmed.

FAQ

Do the Dacia drivers really have no team for the Dakar 2027?

Correct as of 22 August 2026. None of the four crews has a confirmed Ultimate class seat. That is a contract status, not a prediction that they will miss the rally.

Why is Dacia leaving rally raid?

Dacia set out to win the Dakar within three years and did it in two. The brand is completing the 2026 world championship season and then ending the project to focus on its core business.

Is Dacia racing the Dakar 2027?

No. Dacia has ruled out an entry. The final Dacia Sandriders event is the 2026 season finale in Abu Dhabi.

Will the Sandrider car disappear too?

Not necessarily. Prodrive built and runs the car and is talking to two or three manufacturers about continuing under a different brand for 2027.

When will we know the Dakar 2027 lineups?

Prodrive indicated a decision on its 2027 Dakar plan around the end of summer 2026. The Rallye du Maroc and the Abu Dhabi finale are the likely announcement windows.

When is the Dakar Rally 2027?

1 to 15 January 2027 in Saudi Arabia, the 49th edition.

About the Author

Sven Syfrig is the founder and Team Principal of TimeOut Racing, a Swiss rally raid assistance team based in Wollerau, Switzerland. Founded in 2014, the team has supported private crews at the Dakar and Dakar Classic every year since 2022, including five crews at the Dakar Classic 2026, with more than 660 mechanic hours spent under clients' cars in the bivouac. Sven writes from the place most reports never reach: the bivouac at three in the morning.