Dakar 2027 moves out of Saudi Arabia: ASO confirms a one-off switch, Africa return reported for January

The biggest rally raid on the calendar has lost its home for one year. Amaury Sport Organisation and the Saudi Motorsport Company put out a joint statement in the last week of October saying the 2027 Dakar Rally will not be held in Saudi Arabia, and that the rally returns to the Kingdom in 2028 for its 50th edition. ADV Pulse carried the news on 26 October 2026. Visordown reported it on 27 October, quoting the organisers: "Dakar 2027 will not take place in Saudi Arabia: the rally will return to the Kingdom in 2028 for its 50th edition."

The reason given is regional security. Visordown points to Houthi attacks on Saudi targets and the travel warnings that followed. The organisers have described the move as an exceptional, one-off decision, and both sides have been careful to call the Saudi tie-up a long-term partnership. Saudi Arabia has hosted seven consecutive editions since 2020.

What is actually confirmed, and what is not

Confirmed: the 2027 Dakar happens, somewhere other than Saudi Arabia, and the host will be named separately. That is the whole of it.

Everything else is reporting, not an entry list. Enduro21 says the rally is set to return to Africa for the first time in almost two decades, with a prologue in Spain or Portugal, a ferry crossing, and the bulk of the event in Morocco. It puts the revised plan at 12 stages plus a rest day and a marathon stage, over roughly 4,900 km, running from a 9 January prologue to a 22 January finish. Visordown, on the other hand, still lists the event as 1 to 15 January 2027. Treat both as moving targets until ASO publishes a roadbook.

For anyone who has ridden Morocco, the shape of it is easy to picture. Erfoud, Merzouga and the Chegaga dunes are the terrain Indian and European rally schools already use for navigation training, and the logistics are far simpler for a privateer than a Saudi campaign. A European start also puts the bivouac within driving distance of most teams' workshops.

Why an Indian reader should care

India has a factory team in this race. Hero MotoSports Team Rally has been at the Dakar since 2016, and in June 2026 the company extended its agreement with ASO by five more years, which keeps the Indian team at the top level of the Dakar and the FIM World Rally-Raid Championship. At the same event Hero launched India's Next Dakar Hero, a development programme that puts selected Indian off-road racers through two to three years of navigation, riding and endurance work.

The first signing under that programme is 18-year-old Shlok Ghorpade from Satara, who has been training alongside Ross Branch. Hero said Ghorpade would do race simulations in Morocco. If the 2027 Dakar does end up in Morocco, an Indian prospect will have been learning on exactly the sand and rock the rally runs on, which is a rare bit of luck in a sport where recce time costs real money.

For the rest of us, a Moroccan Dakar is the most watchable version in years. It is one time zone off Europe, well covered, and it is the rally's ancestral ground. Wait for the official route before booking anything. ASO has said the host announcement comes in the coming days.

Sources

• Dakar Moves Away from Saudi Arabia For Its Upcoming Edition, ADV Pulse, 26 October 2026
• Dakar 2027 officially moved from Saudi Arabia ahead of landmark return in 2028, Visordown
• Dakar Rally 2027 to return to Africa for first time in nearly 20 years, Enduro21
• Hero MotoSports Celebrates 10 Years, Renews Dakar Partnership and Launches Talent Hunt Programme, TopGear India