26 October 2023
World Champion Nasser Al-Attiyah joins Prodrive for Rally Raid
2023 FIA World Rally Raid Champion Nasser Al-Attiyah will join Prodrive for the forthcoming FIA World Rally Raid Championship. Co-driver Mathieu Baumel will join Al-Attiyah in a Prodrive Hunter T1+ all-terrain challenger as they focus on winning the opening event, the Dakar Rally in January 2024, for a sixth time.
The duo will be entered to compete as ‘Nasser Racing’ and run by Prodrive alongside Sébastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin in the Bahrain Raid Xtreme (BRX) Team to make one of the strongest rally pairings seen for many years. A further five Prodrive Hunters will also compete on the Dakar 2024 in the hands of X Rally (Brazil) and YunXiang (China) teams making a total of seven cars in the Prodrive Dakar bivouac.
As part of their preparation for the event, Al-Attiyah and Baumel will compete in the Baja Portalegre 500 (October 26-28) and the Dubai International Baja (10-12 November) to gain valuable time in the Hunter before January’s Dakar adventure.
Nasser Al-Attiyah, Nasser Racing
It is a very special feeling to come to Prodrive as I have seen over the last three years that the team has worked very hard to get to where they are now with the Hunter. I’m so happy to join the Prodrive team with Mathieu as I believe it will be one of the strongest in the sport. Over the years I have won with three different manufacturers in Rally Raid, but to win with a fourth car is a big target for us. We’re really looking forward to it.
David Richards, Prodrive Chairman:
To have Nasser and Mathieu, the reigning World Rally Raid Champions, join us for the 2024 season in the Prodrive Hunter is great news. We look forward to working closely with them both as we work hard toward Dakar in January. Nasser’s successes speak for themselves and with so many championships to his name, I am certain that the pairing will perform strongly in the Hunter.
NOTES TO EDITORS
– 100% designed and built at Prodrive, the Hunter T1+ is going into its fourth Dakar Rally with the BRX Team in 2024.
– The Prodrive Hunter won nine out of the 14 stages on Dakar 2023.
– The Prodrive Hunter has won stages on Dakar and outright victory on Rallye du Maroc 2022 in customer hands.
– Prodrive enters the Dakar in 2024 as the company enters its 40th anniversary year.
– Nasser Al-Attiyah is a five-time Dakar rally winner, WRC-2 and Production Car World Rally Champion plus an Olympic medallist at skeet shooting.
About Prodrive
Prodrive is one of the world’s largest and most successful motorsport and technology businesses. Over 500 staff are employed across its Banbury headquarters and composites manufacturing facility in Milton Keynes. While the company is perhaps best known for motorsport, today it is just one part of an organisation that in the last decade has diversified to become a technology business working in a range of sectors and providing a range of services. Within the Prodrive Group, there are four distinct but interconnected business areas: Motorsport, operating race and rally programmes for vehicle manufacturers and global brands; Advanced Technology, providing innovative technology for the automotive, aerospace, defence, and marine sectors; Composites, developing lightweight composite components for the automotive, aerospace and marine sectors; and Brand& developing bespoke clothing and accessories for leading brands.
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