The Dakar project: From circuit racing to the desert

Audi Sport has its roots in rallying. The Audi quattro revolutionized the World Rally Championship in the early 1980s. Posters, photos and stickers on display at Audi Sport in Neuburg still recall this time.

However, none of the team from that time is still active today and rally raids are new territory for Audi Sport.

The only off-road experience comes from the rallycross project with Mattias Ekström’s team in the 2017/18 seasons, where there was up to 50 percent gravel, but rally raids in the desert are a different dimension.

Initially, a small core team at Audi Sport worked on a feasibility study for the alternative drivetrain concept. The design and concept phase began in June 2020. Things really got underway in August.

Audi Sport has been developing new race cars for more than four decades. The diverse expertise also helped in the development of the Audi RS Q e-tron. The process is always the same, only the goals were different this time. Reliability is particularly important at the Dakar Rally. Every component has to last in the desert for 14 days under the toughest conditions.

Reliability is Audi Sport’s top priority for its first outing in the Dakar Rally in January 2022. In the desert, Audi has to be prepared for sand, boulders, rough gravel roads as well as mud, rain and extreme heat. These conditions are particularly tough for the electric drive.

In addition, the Audi RS Q e-tron was built during the time of pandemic conditions. Because of COVID-19, much of the development took place in home office circumstances. Virtual meetings replaced real meetings. Planning trips and testing is also more complicated than in normal times.

All of the relevant departments were involved in the development of the Audi RS Q e-tron at Audi Sport. Whereas the engineers always had a certain basis for the circuit racing projects, they started from scratch for the RS Q e-tron. Audi Sport defined all parameters on a blank sheet of paper. In Q Motorsport, the brand had a strong partner at its side from the very beginning who has a lot of experience in rally raids.

In general, weight is a big issue with electric vehicles. In the case of the Audi RS Q e-tron, this is compounded by the energy converter – a combination of the TFSI engine from the DTM with an MGU. The prototype for the desert is full of technology. It was therefore an advantage that existing components were already weight-optimized. Because, it is also the case in the Dakar Rally that lighter means faster.

Until January 2022, Audi has reeled off as many test kilometers as possible and coordinated the systems to make the car fast and reliable. Unlike circuit racing, there is no crew to repair the car during the daily stages. Only the drivers and other participants can work on the car. The more reliably the car works in the rough terrain, the less risk there is of losing time. Only in the evening can the service team take care of the RS Q e-tron in the bivouac.