As soon as she gets out of the buggy, her suit still covered in sand, the young Saudi Merryhan Albaz puts on her lipstick and then lights a cigarette: on the Dakar-2025 bivouac, the new generation of Saudi pilots is sharpening their skills.
In parallel with its official competition, for the sixth year in the Saudi Arabian desert, the famous rally-raid is organizing for the first time a training program for ten young Saudi drivers, called “Saudi Next Gen”.
Symbolic, this public relations operation illustrates the massive investment in sport in recent years by the conservative kingdom, which has spectacularly liberalized in certain societal areas under the control of the new crown prince, Mohammed ben Salman, 39 years old.
“63% of the Saudi population is under 30 years old and the crown prince wants to have the support of young people, this is crucial for the legitimization of his regime. But among young people, sport is very popular,” Professor Danyel Reiche, of Georgetown University in Qatar, explains to AFP.
At the Dakar start camp, five crews made up of a driver and a co-pilot benefit from a week of coaching. At stake, for the eight men and two women (unveiled) selected by the Saudi automobile federation: a place for the Dakar-2026 for the most promising tandem.
“I had always been told that I could not participate in the Dakar rally. That it’s dangerous, and that it’s even more difficult to do for us women,” Merryhan Albaz, a 32-year-old influencer who is passionate about mechanics, tells AFP.
“Here on weekends, it’s taking the 4×4, driving in the desert”
Desert, surroundings of Bisha (southwest), eight o’clock in the morning.
In the middle of stones and thorny bushes, coach Edo Mossi puts his students in working order to take them around a 26 km long loop. The five SSVs (a vehicle halfway between a quad and a car) start backfiring three minutes apart each.
Those involved do not know it, but that day their coach had little concern for their conduct.
Behind his sunglasses, the 44-year-old Italian observes their general attitude, their preparation of the vehicle, their anticipation of possible problems or their communication with the assigned mechanic. Who has the iron rigor necessary to join the world rally-raid elite?
“Here on the weekend, it’s taking the 4×4, driving into the desert and having a picnic, it’s their natural habitat. So to see locals competing at a high level is a great story,” says Edo Mossi.
Like all Saudi women, Merryhan Albaz only obtained the right to take a driving test in 2018. When a first all-female rally was held in her country in 2020, the young woman from Jeddah joined rushed to participate.
Evolving in the very masculine world of motor sports, being a woman in rallying draws attention to her in Saudi Arabia.
“A man can make any mistake, no one will tell him anything. But for a woman, the smallest thing will be held against her. So you need the power to go for it, both emotionally and physically,” she confides upon returning from training.
“It seems that Saudi Arabia wants to train its own athletes”
Although Saudi society remains deeply conservative, women’s rights have clearly progressed on the peninsula since 2018: drastic reduction in religious police, end of chaperoning, right to travel alone, etc.
Beyond a search for international recognition, Riyadh’s commitment to sports responds to the diversification of an economy dependent on oil revenue, as well as the desire to convert a population that is has 40% obese adults.
According to figures from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, the contribution of the sports sector to the national GDP represents 6.9 billion dollars in 2024, compared to 2.4 in 2016. Two billion dollars are invested each year in this sector in the Kingdom of 35 million inhabitants.
To wear their colors in competitions, continues Danyel Reiche, “Qatar or the Emirates have naturalized athletes”. “It seems that Saudi Arabia wants to train its own athletes. It will take time, at least a decade before they are competitive at the international level,” continues this Middle East sports specialist.
In the “Saudi Next Gen” camp, Hamza Bakhashab, 21, is brimming with a double ambition: to become world rally raid champion and to win the Dakar.
“For next year, I will be ready. I have to improve in terms of physical fitness, endurance, but the driving is there,” asserts bravado, this son of a former racing driver. The insurance of champions?
