In Bologna this week Fiat announced that Bruno Saby will drive the second Fiat Panda entry which is set to tackle the formidable Lisboa-Dakar Rally next month; and as a former Dakar Rally winner himself the veteran Frenchman will bring all the skills needed to get the tiny rally car safely across the North African desert and to the finish line.

Born on 23 February 1949, Saby in fact made his FIA World Championship debut on the 1976 Monte Carlo Rally at the wheel of an Italian machine: the irrepressible Autobianchi A112, and later he developed a close four year long association with Lancia, with one of his two career outright WRC successes coming at the wheel of a GpA Delta on the 1988 Monte Carlo Rally; his other win was on the 1986 Tour de Corse where he drove the fearsome GpB Peugeot 205T16. Whilst at the wheel of the GpA Lancia Delta he also claimed podium finishes on the 1988 Tour de Corse and on the Monte Carlo Rally a year later.

A stint behind the wheel of a "rally raid" Mitsubishi Pajero in 1992 during the Paris-Sirte-Le Cap event made Saby realise that the endurance rallying discipline was the way to go on for him, and driving for the same Japanese brand he won the Dakar Rally the very next year. He joined the VW cross country rallying operation for the 2004 season and was a central figure in the development of the factory-supported VW Race Touareg. Saby recently added to his already impressive CV by comfortably winning the 2005 FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup, having claimed two wins and one second place.
 

Now after a decade and a half he returns to the wheel of Italian racing machinery. The Frenchman was in Bologna last week for the official presentation of the "Pandakar" project and was introduced to the Italian media during the official press conference along with Miki Biasion, who will drive the other Panda entry, by Fiat brand CEO Luca De Meo. "It's a completely new challenge for me," Saby told Italiaspeed in Bologna, "I have won the Dakar with Mitsubishi, and have won the World Cup last year; so for this year, for me, this is a completely new project, it's a fantastic opportunity.

Saby was also very upbeat about the prospects of getting the tiny racing car with its near-standard engine, a package which has only run in recent weeks, across the Sahara and to the finish line: "I think we can complete the rally with this car, the chance is there to finish. The car is very light which helps. People have said to me it's pretty crazy, but for me its realistic."

by Edd Ellison