Defender to join Dakar Rally from 2026

The Defender brand has announced plans to enter the Dakar Rally in 2026 as part of a three-year programme.

Land Rover will field two examples of the popular Defender at all rounds of the World Rally Raid Championship next year, with an additional third vehicle added to its line-up for the Dakar.

The Defender will compete in the Stock category which is reserved for production cars, although the sporting and technical regulations will be updated in 2026 to make the class more competitive.

Explaining the decision to enter Dakar in the Stock division, as opposed to the Ultimate class featuring prototypes from the likes of Toyota, Dacia and Ford, JLR Motorsport managing director James Barclay told reporters including Autosport: “It’s not right for us to come with Ultimate Authentic, the Defender is the original off-road vehicle.

“It was the first four-wheel drive off-roader in history, so it’s not like this for us to get into motorsport.

“This is only possible if we can do it right, and the right way to demonstrate the potential of our incredible Defender as a production car is if we come up with a space frame car that looks like a Defender. If so, then it is not authentic in our opinion.

“We wanted the challenge to be about bringing in our real car to show what it’s capable of, and to support this vision.

“ASO and the FIA ​​had to look at the rules and say, ‘Okay, we need to improve this’. The rules were based on a very old concept of a production vehicle, and what we’ve done is worked with the FIA And will bring the ASO regulations in line with the reality of modern production SUVs.

“Defender is an aluminum architecture, what we call the D7X platform for Defender, an aluminum monocoque construction, three times more rigid than the normal traditional way of building SUVs.

“And the powertrains are also very interesting, and we’ll share more details on that later. When you look at off-road sport, we think there’s a big opportunity, if you look at the GT3 and GT4 in circuit racing. To compare, back in 2000 when the category was created, there was very little GT racing, and if you look at it now, GT racing is abundant with GT3 and GT4, while in off-road racing, there is a It’s a big opportunity.”

The defender has not yet announced drivers for its three-car attack for the Dakar, but has said it is looking for experienced runners to lead the programme. A female driver can also be recruited into its line-up.

Defender is already the official vehicle partner of the Dakar this year and has supplied 20 SUVs to transport race officials and VIPs. An additional six modified Recce vehicles will join the fleet to help ASO plan routes for the 2026, ’27 and ’28 editions of the Dakar.

Defender said it has already begun an extensive development program with its new rally-raid contender and will drive the vehicle in a competitive environment for the first time in autumn 2025.

This will take place before the car’s debut at the 48th edition of the Dakar in January 2026.