Motorsports
Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz have big dreams for their second year in the Dakar with Ford: “We can see all the results for 2025. The improvements are very obvious.”
Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz Today at Red Bull headquarters, we announced our goals for Dakar 2026, which will be held for the seventh time in Saudi Arabia from January 3rd to 17th. The Ford M Sports team will participate with four Raptor T1+ Evos. Carlos Sainz reported on all the improvements the car received after an intense 2025 testing and racing season.
In 2026, Ford M Sport’s second participation in the race They competed in the Dakar in vehicles designed and built specifically for this race, with new and striking decorations that highlight the Red Bull and Raptor brands. The Ford Raptor T1+ was built from the ground up and represents the pinnacle of Ford design and engineering in all-terrain vehicles. This technology project was launched in early 2024. Since that day, a multidisciplinary team has been working to achieve the goal of winning the Dakar.
At the 2026 Dakar, the four Ford Raptor T1+ cars will be driven by the same crew as a year ago: Carlos Sainz – Lucas Cruz (No. 225), Matthias Ekström – Emil Bergqvist (No. 226), Nani Roma – Alex Haro (No. 227) and Mitch Guthrie Jr. – Keron Walch (No. 228). After racing their last Dakar, the duo has the ideal experience to build on. Carlos Sainz, who, like co-driver Lucas Cruz, has won the rally four times, will compete in the great all-terrain race for the 18th time in 2026. Teammate Nani Roma will be competing for the 29th time and has won twice, once on four wheels and once on two wheels.
The biggest advantage of each unit is the total weight reduction of 50 kg. This reduction in weight and improved mass distribution is very important in assault vehicles, not only because of the weight itself, but also because of the loads that the assembly is subjected to at each stage. Improvement work has also been applied to the suspension, with the program featuring the latest generation of Ford-specific Fox shock absorbers, making them more durable and lighter.
“We’ve been working on it for over a full year and we’re very happy with everything we’ve accomplished. The improvements achieved are very obvious and what I like most is the concern We constantly strive to improve everything that helps us achieve our goals. We arrive at Dakar 2026 more confident after many kilometers of testing and competition. Technical reliability is fundamental in the Dakar, but so is performance on all types of terrain. I think we are at the ideal time to try everything,” Sainz said.
“The technical equality advocated by the regulations makes the efforts of each team to improve the details very important. All cars have virtually the same power and similar tires, so we have to pay close attention to the weight, suspension and robustness of the assembly. A lot of work has gone into it. We have 12 cars with real options and a team of very fast drivers of different generations, so the uncertainty is obvious and that’s what makes the Dakar so interesting.”
The 2026 Dakar Rally will begin on January 3 with a prologue in Yanbu, a city on the Red Sea coast that will be the start and finish center of the race. The start will take place on January 4th, the first stage of the marathon (stages 4 and 5) will take place on the 7th, and the race will rest in the capital Riyadh on January 10th. The second stage of the marathon (Stage 9 and 10) will be held on January 13th, and the desert race will conclude on January 17th in Yanbu, the same city where it started. The 8,000km is divided into 13 stages, adding more technical routes and more navigation.
Source: Mundo Deportivo
I am a writer at Sportish, where I mainly cover sports news. I’ve also written for The Guardian and ESPN Brasil, and my work has been featured on NBC Sports, SI.com and more. Before working in journalism, I was an athlete: I played football for Colgate University and competed in the US Open Cross Country Championships.
One of the two new teams on the Formula 1 grid is preparing to introduce its car for the 2026 season. The Audi team will officially reveal the new car at a special event in Berlin on Tuesday, January 20.
Audi has fully taken over Sauber’s project ahead of the 2026 season and will start its first Formula 1 championship as a factory team and power unit manufacturer. The team has also retained a significant portion of its 2025 Sauber structure, including team boss Jonathan Whitley and drivers Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg.
This will make Audi the fourth team to submit designs for its 2026 car, after Red Bull, Racing Bulls and Haas. The presentation will take place in the German capital in the format of a full-fledged seasonal launch.
Following the main event, a separate event will be held in Berlin on Wednesday, January 21 for selected fans and media to take a closer look at the new car and its livery.
The presentation will start on January 20 at 20:00 Kyiv time. During the event, the team will reveal the car’s full design for the 2026 season.
Let’s remember that Audi had previously put the 2026 car on the track during promotional races at the Barcelona-Catalonia circuit in early January, but only a limited number of images were released at that time.
Formula 1. Presentation of the first Audi car. Watch LIVE online
Source: Sport UA
Ruth Waterhouse is an author and sports journalist who writes for Sportish. She is known for her coverage of various sports events and her insightful analysis of sports-related news. With a passion for sports and a keen eye for detail, she has become a respected voice in the sports community.
Formula 1 driver Nico Hulkenberg can count on a multimillion-dollar bonus in his first season with Audi if he can repeat the results in the 2025 season.
Last season, the German pilot reached the Formula 1 podium after 250 races for the first time in his career and finished the British Grand Prix in third place. At Silverstone, Hulkenberg was ahead of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and scored 15 points in one go.
Hulkenberg scored 51 points at the end of the 2025 season.
On the eve of Audi’s first season, specialized media reported that the 38-year-old pilot signed a contract providing a bonus of 50 thousand euros for each point earned in the 2026 season.
Given the large-scale changes in Formula 1, even the pilots themselves cannot yet predict the balance of power in the peloton. However, if Hulkenberg scores 51 points again, the bonus can reach 2 million 550 thousand euros in addition to his base salary at Audi.
If Nico manages to win the race and score the maximum 25 points, this will immediately earn him a bonus of 1,250,000 euros.
The team will present the appearance of its first car today at 20:00 Kyiv time.
Source: Sport UA
Ruth Waterhouse is an author and sports journalist who writes for Sportish. She is known for her coverage of various sports events and her insightful analysis of sports-related news. With a passion for sports and a keen eye for detail, she has become a respected voice in the sports community.
Thomas Berman, the younger brother of Haas Formula 1 team driver Oliver Berman, will officially take part in Italian Formula 4 and Euro 4 in the 2026 season.
Thomas will represent the VAR team colours.
The 16-year-old Briton spent last year in British Formula 4, where he scored one win and finished eighth in the final season standings.
But the ones that are considered the most prestigious and promising are the Italian and European Formula 4 championships. They are often chosen by young pilots for further career advancement. In addition, Thomas’ older brother Oliver Berman also competed in these series and became the Italian Formula 4 champion in 2021 with 11 wins.
Let us also remind you that Ukrainian Alexander Bondarev will compete in the same championships with the Prima Racing team in the 2026 season. The Ukrainian pilot does not hide his ambitions and has repeatedly expressed his intention to fight for the championship title.
Bondarev now participates in Middle East Formula 4 in preparation for the European leg of the season. After the first stage, he took first place in the general rankings and became the leader in the rankings.
Thomas Berman will compete in the Formula Winter Series as part of his preparations.
The competition between the current “four” promises to be extremely high, and the appearance of the younger brother of the Formula 1 pilot will only increase interest in the series.
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Source: Sport UA
Ruth Waterhouse is an author and sports journalist who writes for Sportish. She is known for her coverage of various sports events and her insightful analysis of sports-related news. With a passion for sports and a keen eye for detail, she has become a respected voice in the sports community.
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