2022 Dakar Rally Champion Nasser Al-Attiyah and co-driver Mathieu Baumel, will return to the lead along with South African Rally-Raid Champion Giniel de Villiers and co-drivers Dennis Murphy, as well as Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings.
This tough rally will mark the start of the 2023 World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) season, with Nasser and Mathieu once again facing the world's toughest cross-country race. The duo will compete in five rounds of the FIA's W2RC during the 2023 season.
The Championship starts with the Dakar Rally in January, and will be followed by the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge in late February; Sonoran Rally in Mexico during April and Desafio Ruta 40 in Argentina at the end of August.
The 2023 W2RC season will conclude with the Morocco Rally scheduled for mid-October 2023.
The remaining two member teams will compete for the rest of the season in the South African Rally-Raid Championship (SARRC) as part of the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing South Africa (TGRSA), which also serves as a key component in the testing and development of the DKR Hilux T1+.
In 2022, seven SARRC series were won by Giniel and former champions Henk and Brett placed second in a championship considered one of the toughest cross-country rallies in the world.
The tough 2022 racing season offers TGR a comprehensive opportunity to improve the performance of the GR DKR Hilux T1+ in terms of quality, durability and reliability.
In line with Toyota's ethos of "making ever-better cars", the team leveraged more than 25,000 km of racing and testing completed by drivers in the W2RC and SARRC events.
In addition, the racers continued to build their own competence, thanks to a combined 130 days of travel, securing the W2RC and SARRC titles for TGR.
For the 2023 season, the FIA has refined its criteria aiming to balance performance between Class T1+ and Class T1U (ultimate) vehicles.
The main focus of the updated regulations is to make competition even tougher. For example, both the T1+ and T1U Class cars have a reduced peak power output of 30kW. The power curve has been adjusted to balance the changes proportionally, and the altitude compensation for the turbo-powered T1+ car has been removed.
At the same time, TGR continues to improve the performance of the GR DKR Hilux T1+ with the aim of further enhancing its quality, durability and reliability.
TGR ensured that the car is fully prepared for the rigors of next year's Dakar Rally, W2RC and SARRC.
As such, improvements have been made to the car's differential, as well as the suspension and wishbones which have been strengthened.
The single damper setup has also been optimized, as have the transmission shift characteristics.
The software has been setup to accept the latest racing fuels and to ensure that the car meets the balance of performance requirements set by the FIA.
The team's commitment to the development of the GR DKR Hilux T1+ is reflected in the individual participants, with seven versions of the car entered privately to register for the 2023 Dakar Rally.
These cars have similar setup and specifications to the GR DKR Hilux T1+ built by the TGR manufacturing team. TGR also supports Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body (TLC), the rally team of Toyota Auto Body Co., Ltd. who competed using the Toyota Land Cruiser.
Flashback to the 2022 Dakar Rally, the team took their ninth straight win in the production car category. At the 2023 Dakar Rally, TLC will rely on the Land Cruiser 300 GR Sport and aim for its 10th straight win in the production car category.
HINO TEAM SUGAWARA entered the 2022 Dakar Rally with a vehicle equipped with a race-specific hybrid system for the first time, and placed 22nd overall in the truck category.
At the 2023 Dakar Rally, they will rely on trucks equipped with a performance-enhanced hybrid system.
The Dakar Rally 2023 will start on December 31, 2022 on the North West coast of Saudi Arabia, before traveling overland towards the city of Ha'il.
From there, the route continues southeast, crossing the dreaded Empty Quarter, before turning north to finish in Dammam, on January 15, 2023.
