Overview
- The 48th edition runs January 3–17, opening with a prologue in Yanbu, followed by 13 stages and a rest day on January 10 in Riyadh.
- The field features 117 bikes, 80 cars, 37 T3 Challenger, 40 T4 SxS, and 44 trucks, plus 97 Dakar Classic vehicles covering roughly 7,000 km.
- Marathon tests fall on January 7–8 and 13–14, requiring roughly 800 km over 48 hours with a desert overnight and no outside assistance.
- Leading car contenders include defending winner Yazeed Al Rajhi with Timo Gottschalk (Toyota), Carlos Sainz and Mattias Ekström (Ford), Sébastien Loeb, Nasser Al-Attiyah (Dacia), and Land Rover’s new D7X‑R led by Stéphane Peterhansel and Rokas Baciuska.
- In bikes, defending champion Daniel Sanders fronts KTM as Honda and Hero field Ricky Brabec, Tosha Schareina, Adrien van Beveren, Ignacio Cornejo, and Ross Branch, while Kevin Benavides moves to a prototype four-wheeler.