At the present moment, Peru is confirmed, Chile is almost, and Argentina is still negotiating. At this point, we are considering that the latest reports will be confirmed: Bolivia out and Ecuador joins only in 2020 (if that edition take place in South America).
For the past editions, by this time of the year the organisation already had revealed the route, not in detail but with sufficient information for the teams to start working on preparation for the “next big adventure.”
For sure, the organisation is working hard to finalise the deals with the governments of the three countries as fast as possible. But this “limbo” is leaving some teams in troubles, especially the local ones that depend of the effective Dakar route to justify the investment of their sponsors. A very good example of this is the Renault team, that in the past edition raced two Dusters, one driven by the local Emiliano Spataro and the other by the Portuguese Carlos Sousa.
In a recent interview, Alejandro Reggi, Commercial Director of Renault Argentina said:
“We don’t have anything defined yet. We are waiting to see what will be the route of the Dakar and, we don’t know if it passes Argentina or not. If it takes too long to announce it, our planification and preparations to be competitive at the rally become complicated. We have this month to decide it, but if Argentina’s hosting the event doesn’t get confirmation, we can abort the project.”
Story by: Rally-Raid Network