Dakar 2027: Where Will the Dacia Drivers Land After the Sandrider Exit?

Last updated: 8 June 2026

Short answer first. With Dacia ending its Sandrider project after the 2026 season, four of the most prominent names in the desert are without a confirmed Ultimate cockpit for the Dakar 2027: Nasser Al-Attiyah, Sébastien Loeb, Lucas Moraes and Cristina Gutiérrez. As of June 2026 the realistic destinations have narrowed sharply. Ford is effectively full now that Carlos Sainz has renewed, which makes Toyota the prime landing spot. X-raid Mini and the smaller prototype teams are the secondary routes. A return to the front of the field in 2027 is realistic but not guaranteed for all four.

New to the Dakar? Three terms first

If you do not follow rally raid every week, three terms make the rest of this article easier. Ultimate, also called T1+, is the top car class the overall Dakar winner comes from, and it is the category every driver discussed here competes in. The W2RC is the World Rally-Raid Championship, the season long series of which the Dakar is the opening and most prestigious round. Challenger is the class one step below Ultimate, built around lighter, lower powered prototypes, and it is where Cristina Gutiérrez won her Dakar class title before moving up.

Why four top seats opened at once

Dacia confirmed that the Sandrider programme finishes at the end of the 2026 World Rally-Raid Championship, with the season finale in Abu Dhabi as the last outing, and a Dakar 2027 entry has been ruled out completely. The reason is simple and unusual at the same time. The project was built around one goal, winning the Dakar inside a three year cycle, and that target was hit in just two years with Al-Attiyah taking the 2026 win. Instead of pushing on, the Renault group decided to close a short but extremely successful chapter and redirect resources elsewhere. We covered the full reasoning when the news broke, in why a Dakar-winning project is ending so soon.

The result is that all four works drivers were freed onto a very small market many months earlier than anyone expected. That single decision turned an otherwise quiet off season into one of the busiest silly seasons rally raid has seen in years.

Photo Credit @  MCH PHOTOGRAPHY

The Sainz domino: why Ford is now closed

The most important move has already happened. Carlos Sainz renewed with Ford and will contest the Dakar 2027, debuting a new partnership with co-driver Dani Oliveras and lining up alongside Mattias Ekström, with the team starting its 2026 campaign at the Rally of Portugal. Sainz is 63 and clearly still wants to chase a fifth title with a fifth manufacturer.

For the Dacia refugees this is the key piece on the board. With Sainz and Ekström confirmed, and Nani Roma and Mitch Guthrie part of the established structure, Ford has no obvious vacancy unless it expands beyond its current car count. That pushes the three drivers still looking for a seat toward Toyota and, below that, toward X-raid Mini.

Driver by driver: the realistic options

Nasser Al-Attiyah & Fabian Lurquin

Al-Attiyah is the most marketable name on the grid. He is the reigning champion and a six time Dakar winner across four manufacturers, including three of those titles with Toyota in 2019, 2022 and 2023. A Toyota homecoming is the logical fit, both because the team has long wanted a proven superstar and because Al-Attiyah knows the Hilux intimately. His strong Qatari backing also keeps a privately funded or hybrid programme on the table if a works seat does not materialise.

Sébastien Loeb & Édouard Boulanger

Loeb was the first to move publicly. He has acknowledged early contact with both Ford, through Malcolm Wilson at M-Sport, and Toyota, through Jean-Marc Fortin, but the talks were described as still at an early stage. With Ford now full, Toyota is his most credible route to the first overall Dakar win that still eludes him. At his age and pedigree he remains a driver any manufacturer would want to develop a car around.

Lucas Moraes & Dennis Zenz

Moraes has the cleanest path of the four. He came to Dacia from Toyota, where he was crowned 2025 World Rally-Raid Champion, so a return to the Hilux camp is the natural boomerang. He is young, fast and Brazilian backed, exactly the kind of long term asset Toyota likes to keep.

Cristina Gutiérrez & Pablo Moreno

Gutiérrez combines a Dakar Challenger class win with strong Red Bull support. Her realistic options run from a Toyota or X-raid seat to a Red Bull aligned programme. Her marketing value and proven race craft mean she is unlikely to be left without a competitive drive.

The common thread is Toyota. Until the works seats there are settled, the rest of the market stays frozen.

Where the seats could actually come from

Realistically only two structures are truly capable of fighting for the win, Toyota and Ford, and they are also the most contested, with very few open places. Below them, X-raid Mini fields proven talents such as Guillaume de Mevius and Lionel Baud, while Century has punched above its weight with Matthieu Serradori and Brian Baragwanath. Smaller prototype outfits like MD Rally could suddenly find themselves with an unexpected gift, a top tier driver looking for a car.

There is a useful historical parallel. When Volkswagen wound down its Race Touareg project, established stars including Sainz, Al-Attiyah and Giniel de Villiers all had to find new homes, and the grid reshuffled around them. The 2027 reshuffle looks set to follow the same pattern, with one extra wrinkle. A new performance and durability regulation framework arrives for 2027, so any driver moving teams is also adapting to a fresh generation of T1+ machinery.

What to watch next

The next confirmed Toyota and X-raid line ups will tell the real story. Watch for movement around Toby Price, whose future looked unsettled after the 2026 Dakar, and for any sign that Ford or Toyota expands its car count. Each of those decisions unlocks the next, and the order in which they fall will decide whether all four Dacia drivers make the 2027 start line at the front of the field.

Updates

We keep this article current as the 2027 driver market settles, and confirmed moves are added here.

8 June 2026. Initial publication. The Ford line up is confirmed with Carlos Sainz and Mattias Ekström. Nasser Al-Attiyah, Sébastien Loeb, Lucas Moraes and Cristina Gutiérrez are still without a confirmed 2027 seat.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Dacia leaving the Dakar after 2026?

Dacia built the Sandrider programme to win the Dakar within a three year cycle and achieved that goal in just two years, taking the 2026 win with Nasser Al-Attiyah. The Renault group then chose to close the project at the end of the 2026 season and redirect resources, ruling out a 2027 entry.

Which drivers lost their seats?

Four Dacia works drivers are affected: Nasser Al-Attiyah, Sébastien Loeb, Lucas Moraes and Cristina Gutiérrez. All four need a new Ultimate cockpit for the Dakar 2027.

Is Carlos Sainz staying in the Dakar?

Yes. Carlos Sainz renewed with Ford for the Dakar 2027 with a new co-driver, Dani Oliveras, and will continue alongside Mattias Ekström.

What are the most realistic teams for the Dacia drivers in 2027?

Toyota is the most realistic destination, followed by X-raid Mini and smaller prototype teams such as Century or MD Rally. Ford is effectively full after the Sainz renewal.

Has any Dacia driver signed for 2027 yet?

As of June 2026 none of the four has a publicly confirmed deal for 2027. Toyota is widely seen as the key team to settle its line up first.

About the Author:

Sven Syfrig is the Team Principal of TimeOut Racing, an international off-road motorsport team based in Switzerland, competing in events like the Dakar Classic. As an active rally driver and YouTube content creator, he shares hands-on insights from the cockpit, the workshop, and the world of amateur rally racing