Mr Dakar, Stéphane Peterhansel, has joined the Defender ranks and spoke to David Evans during testing in Morocco
Photography by Defender, Red Bull & Girardo & Co. Archive
Words by David Evans, DirtFish Head of Media
Aura has entered the chat. And is sitting opposite me.
Two words: Stéphane Peterhansel. Fourteen times. Mr Dakar.
His time ripping up the dunes in January was supposed to be done. But then the phone rang. He took the call, did the deal and became a Defender driver. That’s how he ended up back in Morocco, back in the sand and back to missing his son’s birthday.
“This year,” smiled the Frenchman, “was the first time in 35 years that I am at home in January and able to make his birthday.”
Next year, he’s back to being busy again.
The last of his 14 wins (eight in a car, six on a bike) came with Mini in 2021. The three years which followed with Audi were tough. Dakar-wise, he registered two DNFs, a 30th overall and just two stage wins. The RS Q e-tron was a quick but complicated beast and when Ingolstadt pulled the plug on the back of Carlos Sainz’s 2024 win, that was enough for Peterhansel.
The Audi chapter didn't deliver the success Peterhansel is accustomed to
“I was happy,” he said. “I had done what I wanted to do. But when the call came from Defender… how could I say no?
“I can tell you, I own one car. It’s a Defender – a 110 which I bought 10 years ago. I love this car. If it was somebody else calling me to say they were coming to Dakar for the first time, I would have told them no. But Defender, this is something special – the brand is something special.”
So, he’s back and he’s back with the Defender Dakar D7X-R, a T2 class challenger. There won’t be another overall victory, but that doesn’t make the slightest difference to his preparations. He sits down to dinner after a day of testing in the Sahara Desert, and the focus is just as fixed as ever. He’s debriefing with the engineers, talking in-depth with how they can further dial the car down for Saudi Arabia in January.
But it’s here, in the heart of Africa and old-school Dakar territory that Peterhansel comes alive. We’re just north of Erfoud, Morocco.
“Where do you think?” is the answer to the question of which has been his favorite geographical flavour of Dakar: Africa, South America or Saudi Arabia.
“Africa had the magic,” he added.
You sense the adventure and the stories which sit behind the smile. But, typically for a driver, he’s looking forwards, not backwards.
“The car is good,” he said. “Straight away when I drove the car in Wales, I could feel everything was coming together. It felt more like a race car. And now we take another big step with this one here in Morocco and it feels better again. We have some more work to do, but I’m happy.”
Having said that he’s not one for looking back, he’s always ready to look back when it comes to the World Rally Championship. Peter’s a huge WRC fan and is quick to divert the conversation to what happened in Paraguay and what might be about to happen in Chile.
He reminds me that he came close to a WRC move of his own.
Peterhansel driving a Xsara WRC? It was talked about
“I was talking to Guy Fréquelin (Citroën team principal) at the start when Citroën was coming to WRC,” he said. “I was talking to him and saying maybe I could be doing some testing. He was interested. But then he asked my age and I was in my thirties. He told me I was a little old… and he had this young guy called Sébastien [Loeb] coming.
“It’s a shame, I love the WRC. It would have been nice to try.”
One of Peterhansel’s best memories is of competing with Colin McRae on a Baja event in Spain in 2007. Talk of the Scotsman widens the smile and brings a sparkle to the eye.
“He was a fantastic guy,” said Peterhansel. “I didn’t know him when he was [in the WRC] but, of course, I follow him in this time like a fan. But when we were doing this event, he was amazing – such a nice guy and such a good driver.”
It feels slightly odd to hear legend on legend. And make no mistake, the 60-year-old sitting opposite me is pure legend.
Peterhansel doesn't need this comeback - he wants it
I remind him of a Peugeot test we did together, somewhere in the South of France a few years ago. The name of the place escapes me, but he remembers the jump. We both do. It was a drop-off, hit at full speed in the 3008 DKR. The only surprise is that we’re not still in the air now…
That commitment was the same earlier in the day – watching him pound the D7X-R across the desert, we stood a safe distance from one of the few turns in sight. Typically for the terrain, there was a bump in the middle of what was probably a fourth-gear corner. The rear of the car was sent skywards, but the throttle was buried and the front wheels held straight. The Defender pulled itself into line and continued to howl its way towards the horizon.
After a long-run test of close to 150 miles, that moment didn’t even register for him.
It’s a genuine pleasure to see Stéphane back in a rally car again and even better to know he’s doing it on his terms and with his dream drive.
Words:David Evans
Tags: Dakar, Defender, Stephane Peterhansel