Saood Variawa: "I feel more comfortable over all the different terrains"

January 1 ^st 2026 - 12:25 [GMT + 3]

Saood Variawa is poised to enter his third Dakar at the tender age of 20. The young South African claimed a stage win last year and went on to race in every single 2025 W2RC round, finishing twelfth overall.

"The start of last year was a different approach. It was my second Dakar, still getting a lot of experience under my belt. From basically last Dakar to now, I've progressed really a lot, especially in my driving, in the performance of the way I can handle situations, the adaptability over the terrains, more comfortable over all the different terrains. So obviously, the goal for any racing driver is to win the race; that's the plan for us. But on the other hand, it's only our third Dakar, and a finish and a good result would just be good enough. The plan as a racing driver is always to attack. We have a strategy worked out already. Obviously, we can't say exactly how it's going to be, but we will see day by day as we go along. The strategy is in place and we will follow it, and hopefully we'll be there."