Their first effort in 2021, though not without promising pace, left the Frenchman stranded in the desert twice as a result of mechanical and operational errors.
In 2022 Loeb and co were right on it but an early navigational error meant there was simply too much of a deficit to claw back to eventual winner Nasser Al-Attiyah, with the Prodrive man coming in second.
Now though, Lapworth says Prodrive has left no stone unturned in its bid to conquer the desert.
“We’re not missing anything – we won the last two events [in the World Rally Raid Championship],” he emphasises.
“In terms of where we feel with performance, the basic kind of reliability of the car, whether the drivers have been well prepared, we’re where we want it to be.”
“That American spoke about the unknowns you know and the unknowns you don’t know”
The 2021 entry revealed the Hunter simply didn’t have big enough wheels to take on the Saudi off-road environment, parts were mislabelled (elongating Loeb’s desert sleepover when his car broke down) and in 2022 the navigational efforts clearly fell short of what was needed.
However, despite addressing these issues and preparing with acute attention to detail, Lapworth admits the Dakar is still looking to be Prodrive’s greatest challenge yet.
“There’s so many things that can happen, you just can’t be overconfident,” he says.
“There was that American [Donald Rumsfeld] who spoke about the unknowns you know and the unknowns you don’t know.
“The navigation and the rocks in the middle of the road are the stuff I would say are the unknowns we know.
“I think the lesson that everybody learns and even the people with decades of Dakar experience say is that there are still some things you have no prior experience of happening every year.”
