Audi Hopes on the RS Q E-Tron's First Win Next Month, This Is What It Is Facing

The race used to be called UAE Desert Challenge, and it has been running since 1991. Its creator is Mohamed Ben Sulayem, the current FIA President. After many years, the competition is now called Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, and Audi Sport is sending one of its best crews for the job with the RS Q e-tron prototype.

The competition in question is the second round of the FIA World Rally-Raid Championship, which has five races in total in this year's calendar, but the first is the Dakar Rally. The Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge is second on the calendar, and it will take place between March 5th, 2022, and March 10th, 2022.

The next races in the season will take place in Kazakhstan, Andalusia (a region of Spain), and Morocco. The last event of the season is from October 7, 2022, until October 12, 2022.

It may not seem like a crowded season, but just consider the fact that the Dakar takes almost two weeks, while the other races in the calendar are five-day-long events. That is five days of racing, not the five days of a typical rally event, including recce, shakedown, and timed stages. We will get into those in a separate article.

Audi has only entered a single crew in the competition, Stéphane Peterhansel and Edouard Boulanger. The team will use the same vehicle they drove in the Dakar Rally, chassis 104, which has not returned to its home base in Germany since it raced in the 2022 Dakar Rally.

The good news for Audi is that the French driver has had six wins of this event in a vehicle since 2002, with 2019 the most recent. Previously, Peterhansel has raced in the same event on two wheels, so he is familiar with the terrain and the race. You can say that he knows what he is doing.

As Audi representatives noted, the difficulty faced by the team in this event will no longer include the tricky navigation in pure Dakar style, which included "hidden waypoints," or "waypoint masqué," as Dakar organizers call them.

Instead, the team has a total rally distance of 1,933 kilometers (1,201 miles), out of which 69 percent are timed, which leaves no room for navigation errors, as well as not much time to catch up in the event of any damage, punctures, or technical issues.

While the power system of the RS Q e-tron worked without a hitch in Dakar, the event in the UAE will have higher temperatures, which will bring additional stress to the crew and the vehicle. Each of the five timed stages is between 217 (134 miles) and 318 kilometers (197 miles) long, and almost 80 percent of the route of the rally is on "large dune mountains."

The rest of the terrain is represented by flat(ish) sandy ground, which has no tracks at all, so the first competitor will have the honor of leading the way or helping everyone get lost or stuck, as driving in someone else's tracks may not be the best idea.

In comparison, the Dakar had a maximum of 60 kilometers (37 miles) of dunes, which pose specific challenges for all competitors. With the proportions shifted entirely in favor of dunes, along with high heat and hot sand, this race is no walk in the park.

The dune mountains described are the most difficult for the crews, as they do not know what lies after a dune, and going too fast will effectively be a jump in the unknown. Meanwhile, going too slow over dunes will pose the risk of getting stuck or just wasting time.

Since all teams are using virtual terrain markers, many might take similar routes, which will increase the risk of an accident for all the competitors out there, especially if someone gets stuck in the sand while another racer jumps over a dune.

Stéphane Peterhansel praises the electric drive of the RS Q e-tron here, as it may bring an edge – instead of carefully selecting a gear for hills, he may just use the instant torque of the e-motors to ensure brisk acceleration without wasting time shifting gears and not having enough torque at hand. Will that be enough? Well, if a six-time winner says so, we are inclined to believe him.

It is worth pointing out that Audi's RS Q e-tron did not get an overall win at its first outing in the Dakar Rally, which means that the German team is hoping for a good result in Saudi Arabia's neighboring country.

With so many wins to his name, Stéphane Peterhansel just needs a bit of luck on his side to bring everything together. Yes, experience along with a reliable vehicle is not enough in competitions like these, you still need a bit of luck on your side.