Al-Rahi, the Dakar billionaire: “If another Saudi wins in the next 10 years, I will give him 10 million”

Yazeed Al-Rajhi (43 years old, Riyadh) He is probably the richest driver in the world. It comes from one of the richest family in saudi arabia, whose patriarch, Sulaiman Al Rajhihave wealth about $2.1 billion, according to Forbes. Yazeed Al Rajhi, apart from the pilot, He is a manager of a family investment company called Rajhi Invest.with a capital worth approximately 1,150 million euros. Next to nothing.

This company is responsible for conducting investment in many sectors such as industrial, banking, finance, hotel, real estate and global investment. The group has stakes in Rajhi Steel, Al Rajhi Bank and Saudi Tourism Development Company and has for several yearsopened more than 1,500 rooms in four hotels in Mecca and Al Khobar, in addition to creating a steel manufacturing company. crazy

Yazeed is the head of a business with many zeroes and at the same time a rally-raid driver, and it has reached the point that he even assured MD that in the connecting sections, where he leaves the wheel to his co-driver, passes he the time reading emails and answering them to verify million dollar operations.

“I am the manager and every day I go to my office and work, I control, also here on the links. Timo (Gottschalk, his co-pilot) knew this, that I answered emails and did some work, a lot of work, to take advantage of the time. Every day I have 20 emails I have to answer”he declared in front of his luxurious ‘motorhome’, the most impressive of all even away from the spirit of Dakar, because it is a real mansion on wheels.

“How many businesses do I have? Many”

“How much business do you have?” MD asked him. “Many,” he answered. “Don’t you know?” this newspaper reiterated. “I have a lot of avocados, water, which is here in Dakar, and we have air conditioners… and about 25,000 workers. I have about 30 or 40 companies. And I have time to pilot because I am a manager and I am not the CEO, who takes care. In my position I have to see every company every week, 10 minutes, and every week I have a report. Every Saturday, there’s a report, what’s going on? What is the budget? And I see it, and if there’s a problem, I tell the CEO what’s going on,” he said.

However, Dakar showed Al-Rajhi that not everything can be achieved with money. No matter how many millions he has in his wallet, the toughest race in the world has shown him that to win you need more than tickets. He managed to win it in his 11th attempt after debuting in 2015. “It’s true, you can’t win for money.”

Promise: million for those who repeat their work

Of course, his way of encouraging local motorsport enthusiasts to follow his example is, of course, with money.

“When I finished on the podium, I finished third in 2022, I published on the networks any of the Saudis who can make the podium in Dakar in the next 5 years I will give them 5 million (Saudi Rials). And now I post it again: I said whoever Saudi wins in the next 10 years, I will give him 10 million. That is about 2.5 million euros. So I want to encourage the Saudis to repeat it.”he argued before this newspaper.

“I don’t like football, I like to drive”

Yazeeed started in the world of motorsports in 2007, in rallies in the Middle East and then moved to the World Rally Championship. And he did this after following the example of his idol at that time, Abdullah Bakhashabformer Saudi rally driver who competed in the WRC between 1998 and 2002.

Why didn’t you choose football? “Because I don’t like football, I don’t watch football. I didn’t even see the match where Saudi Arabia faced Argentina in the last World Cup. At that time I was sleeping, in Miami, and when I woke up I saw that they had won. But I’m not interested in football, I’m interested in Dakar, because I’ve always wanted to drive here,” he exclaimed to MD in front of Toyota Overdrive, a private team (related to the official Toyota) that became the champion, something historic and that happened for the first time in the last 25 years.

In this sense, he considers that giving Saudi Arabia victory in the Dakar can be considered the country’s greatest sporting victory, or comparable to that victory of the soccer team against Argentina by Messi and highlights that “this is the first time the Dakar is a local driver from the country where he is competing”.

In addition to being rich, he is said to be generous. “I learned this from my father and my family. “They gave a lot of money to charity.” In fact, the patriarch of his family, Sulaiman Al Rajhi a few years ago, transferred his nearly 20% stake in Al Rajhi Bank to a charitable foundation bearing his name. And in 2011 he already donated part of his fortune to charity, financing the fight against hunger and education in Saudi Arabia.

Unconditional fan of Sainz

Yazeed Al-Rajhi has always shown a special devotion to Carlos Sainz. It became clear last year that the Saudi abandoned his position as leader of Dakar and insisted that Carlos stay one day in the luxurious mansion he has. Yazeed by motorhome in bivouac. But this time, go further.

When asked if Carlos had been in touch with him these days, with the Spaniard out of the race, the Saudi took out his mobile phone, opened his WhatsApp and showed their conversation with Sainz. “Shall I call you?” said one of the ‘Matador’ messages, to which Yazeed replied with an emoticon of interest. Carlos called him to give him advice. He also showed more congratulatory messages from the Madrid native after a few episodes. “He always supports me and gives me good advice”said Yazeed who dreams of being like Carlos. He starts by winning his first Dakar, he has 3 left to equal the Spaniard.

Change of mind

Al-Rajhi has always been an all-or-nothing driver, attacking, attacking, attacking, barely knowing what braking and race management are. However, in a race of pure endurance like the Dakar 2025, where some of the favorites fell in the first days, the Saudi focused on managing the event and his extremely fiery drive. He admitted to MD that this was the key to his success.

“What has changed? The Experience! Now we have experience. Before he always attacked. Now we think what is the day to attack, what is the day not to attack… Strategy. I don’t think you can win without a strategy. When we need speed, we push. By the 9th or 10th day I was about 90%, without pushing to 100%, at all. AND at stage 11, sometimes i pushed to 95%, but not 100%because I don’t want to take any chances. And I know I can do it. I’m good in the dunes, I don’t need 100%, because there you might have an advantage, but you might break the suspension or break something. “You have to be smart.”