The 2025 Dakar Rally’s opening stage descended into chaos as a critical malfunction in the Sentinel proximity warning system left drivers and bikers navigating a perilous path. The failure of this essential safety feature forced competitors to race blind, increasing the risks of overtaking and sparking near-disasters on the 413km stage.
Dakar Rally event director David Castera has promised swift action, declaring that a solution “must be found this evening” to ensure the safety of all participants in Sunday’s second stage.
What Went Wrong with Sentinel?
As part of the Dakar Rally’s advanced electronic road book system, each vehicle is equipped with two tablets, one dedicated to the Sentinel system. This technology provides proximity warnings, helping drivers safely overtake bikers and avoid terrain hazards. However, technical issues crippled the system just 100km into the stage, leaving many crews reliant on backup tablets that lacked Sentinel’s full functionality.
“Almost everyone has a second tablet, but the Sentinel system, which warns of bikers and assists with overtaking, seems to have jammed and reset,” Castera explained to La Chaine L’Équipe. “This caused serious problems for overtakes, particularly for motorbikes. It’s a safety issue, and we must resolve it tonight.”
Drivers React: “It Was Borderline Unsafe”
Five-time Dakar champion Nasser Al-Attiyah didn’t hold back, recounting a tense encounter with a biker due to the Sentinel failure.
“The tablet broke after 100km,” Al-Attiyah said. “We had problems passing bikes and other cars. At one point, we passed a bike without Sentinel – it’s really not nice.”
Al-Attiyah’s navigator, Edouard Boulanger, a former biker, emphasized the dangers:
“At a certain moment, all Sentinels seemed to stop working. We did nearly 250km without Sentinel, which is borderline unsafe, especially for bikers. They only have one GPS system, and for them, it must be hell.”
Stage winner Guerlain Chicherit (X-Raid Mini JCW) shared a harrowing tale of a near-miss with a biker in the dust.
“We went straight into a tree avoiding a biker. We didn’t have GPS anymore. It’s annoying, but everyone faced the same issues,” he said.
Other top drivers, including Sébastien Loeb, Cristina Gutiérrez, and Nani Roma, also struggled with malfunctioning Sentinels, highlighting the widespread nature of the issue.
Safety on the Line: A Rally-Wide Concern
The Sentinel failure has raised alarms throughout the Dakar community, especially since overtaking on the rally’s treacherous stages already demands precision and caution. With bikers relying heavily on these alerts to avoid collisions, the malfunction posed an even greater threat to their safety.
Chicherit’s navigator succinctly summarized the stakes:
“Safety is everything here. Without Sentinel, every overtake becomes a gamble.”
Castera’s Promise: Fixes Coming Tonight
Acknowledging the severity of the issue, Castera assured teams that the organizers are racing against the clock to fix the problem before Sunday’s second stage.
“The drivers will complain, as they should. But this is about safety. We must ensure Sentinel works properly tomorrow,” he vowed.
What’s Next for Dakar?
As teams brace for another day of grueling desert competition, the Sentinel issue remains a critical challenge for organizers. With the rally’s reputation and participant safety on the line, the pressure is on to deliver a seamless resolution overnight.
The question remains: can the Dakar Rally restore confidence and ensure the Sentinel system’s reliability for the remainder of the competition? One thing is certain – in the Dakar, even technology isn’t immune to the unforgiving desert.
