Prodrive BRX Hunter T1 Dakar Rally Car | Bahrain Raid Xtreme Team | Sébastien Loeb & Nani Roma
World Rally Championship legend Sebastien Loeb says the Prodrive-run Bahrain Raid Xtreme team is not entering the Dakar Rally to finish behind established outfits like Toyota and X-raid Mini.
Loeb is returning to the Dakar after a one-year absence to helm the new Bahrain Raid Xtreme outfit, where he will be joined by 2015 winner Nani Roma.
The joint venture between British engineering firm Prodrive and the Bahrain sovereign fund has prepared an all new contender named the BRX1 for its Dakar debut in Saudi Arabia next month, featuring a bespoke 3.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine.
After an initial shakedown in the UK, the BRX team completed a successful desert test in the Middle East in November, with Loeb particularly impressed by the reliability of its 4x4 machine.
When the 43rd edition of the Dakar Rally kicks off on January 3, BRX will be up against both the 4x4s and buggies of defending champions X-Raid, as well as the Hilux pick-up trucks of Toyota.
Asked if BRX could take the fight to Toyota and X-raid, the teams that swept the top seven spots in the 2020 edition of the event, Loeb - who is still chasing his first Dakar win - told Motorsport.com: “I hope so, we are not going there to be behind.
“I always want to win, so the goal is to do our best, to be ready and to be able to compete. Then, like I said, we haven't been able to compare directly to another car [in performance] and we don't have a lot of kilometres, so it's a bit difficult to know.
“The feeling with the car is really nice, I enjoy more driving this one than driving the [Peugeot] buggy. When you are in some little tracks you have lots of fun in the car and you can really push it hard.
"It's difficult to analyse now what would be better. We have a good car, but we'll see how it is compared with the buggy in the Dakar.”
