Home » The cards have been shuffled for the cars for Dakar 2025

The cards have been shuffled for the cars for Dakar 2025

Can a lot change in the cars of the Dakar Rally in a year? Yes, absolutely! The winning brand of the previous edition, Audi, is not there and there are many new and improved cars and brands at the start. RallyTracks takes you through the field of participants.

Dacia

Let’s start with one of the newcomers: Dacia. Last year Dacia announced that they wanted to participate in the Dakar Rally. They entered into a partnership with Prodrive and built a new car: the Dacia Sandrider. The car is new and unconventional, but it has also been tested extensively. In Morocco the car won and came second, that looks promising.

The teams are certainly not the least. With starting number 200, Nasser Al-Attiyah will drive, the five-time winner will be navigated by Edouard Boulanger. Cristina Gutierrez will start with number 212 and will be navigated by Pablo Moreno, the Spanish won the Challenger category last year and is now making the switch to cars. The team is completed by Sébastien Loeb and Fabian Lurquin, after eight participations, five podium places and 28 stage victories, the Frenchman wants to take the win.

X-RAID MINI

The X-RAID team is certainly no newcomer to the Dakar, but the German team surprised by entering two different versions of the MINI JCW Rally. There is the old familiar diesel version, but they will also enter with a petrol engine.

The team will start with six crews and has a mix of experience and fast young riders. Guillaume de Mévius is, together with Mathieu Baumel, certainly one of the favorites. Just like Guerlain Chicherit and Alex Winocq. Denis Krotov and Konstantin Zhiltsov are real outsiders for the podium, the same goes for Joao Ferreira and Felipe Palmeiro. The team is completed by Lionel and Lucie Baud and Vladas Jurkevicius and Aisvydas Paliunekas.

Toyota

During the Dakar Rally, the Toyota team cannot be missed. Just like in previous years, they are divided into two teams: Toyota Overdrive Racing and Toyota Gazoo Racing.

The leader of the Overdrive Racing team is without a doubt Yazeed Al-Rajhi, together with Timo Gottschalk he wants to win the rally in his home country. Rokas Baciuska is the second car of the Belgian team, after three podiums in the T3 and T4 class the young Lithuanian makes the switch to the T1. The third driver is Juan Cruz Yacopini. Toby Price and Sam Sunderland also make the switch to the cars, the two motorcyclists get into the Toyota Hilux together and could well surprise.

The Gazoo Racing team consists of 6 cars. Lucas Moraes has already shown that he is fast, together with Armand Monleon he could well be one of the surprises this year. This also applies to the young Seth Quintero, he is navigated by Dennis Zenz. The South Africans are also present in abundance within the team. Of course Giniel de Villiers is again present, he is navigated by Dirk von Zitzewitz. Guy Botterill is one of the other South Africans, just like Henk Lategan and Saood Variawa.

M-Sport Ford

Another newcomer: the M-Sport team. M-Sport has a proven track record in rallying, where it has won many trophies with Ford. Malcolm Wilson’s team has now teamed up with Gareth Woolridge in South Africa. Together they have built the Ford Raptor and recruited a star team of drivers. Carlos Sainz, the winner of the 2024 Dakar, is the team’s leader and will once again be co-driven by Lucas Cruz. The Spanish duo are keen to defend their title and in the preparatory rallies the Raptor looked fast.

Mattias Ekström, with Emil Bergkvist next to him, is the second ex-Audi driver in the team. Nani Roma and Alex Haro were the first top drivers that the team signed, after a few mediocre editions Roma would like to show that he still has it in him. The last driver of the team is Mitchell Guthrie with Kellon Walch next to him. The American made the switch from the T3 category, where he was fast.

Century

Another team from South Africa, Century builds buggies and has now switched to a four-wheel drive version, the CR7. Mathieu Serradori is without a doubt the leader of the team, with his navigator Loic Minaudier he would really like to go for the win. The second driver is the fast Brian Baragwanath, the South African is fast but certainly not flawless. Laia Sanz is the fast lady within the team, she comes with the two-wheel drive CR6-T. Mark Corbett completes the team with a CR6-T.

MD Optimus

In recent years, the MD team has regularly achieved good daily results. The MD Optimus is a two-wheel drive buggy. Where Century has made the switch to four-wheel drive, MD has stuck to their trusted concept. The team leader is Frenchman Christian Lavieille. The team is completed by Jean-Luc Ceccaldi, Simon Vitse, Eugenio Amos and Pascal Thomasse. All fast drivers who can provide a surprise.

Other contenders

In addition to the factory drivers, there are several private teams that start with good and fast equipment. One of them is Benediktus Vanagas, the man from Lithuania has shown to be fast, but sometimes makes a mistake, which is why he never managed to score better than an 8th position. Martin Prokop is also a fast European with good equipment, last edition the Czech came fifth in his own Ford Raptor.

Red-Lined, also from South Africa, has developed considerably in recent years and will be competing with the Revo+, among other things. They do not have a factory team, so all cars are entered by private drivers. Aliyyah Koloc is a fast and young lady, who is navigated by the experienced Sébastien Delaunay. She hopes to continue her learning process.

There is also a group of fast Chinese drivers present. One of them is Guoyu Zhang in a Toyota Hilux. Zhang scored two top fifteen results in three Dakars, he hopes for a top ten ranking in this edition. Wei Han will start with a Red-Lined.

The Dutch

This year again, several Dutchmen will be at the start. Tim and Tom Coronel will be driving a brand new Century CR7 and want to achieve a place in the top fifteen.

Maik Willems will be at the start for the eleventh time with the striking orange Toyota Hilux, this year he will be navigated by Marcel Snijders. Snijders won the Dakar in 2023 as navigator of Janus van Kasteren in the truck.

Dave Klaassen is the third Dutchman on the entry list. Together with his wife, Tessa, in a new Red-Lined Revo T1+ they want to improve their result of 2023.

Rik van den Brink is a debutant in the Dakar Rally, together with Gydo Heimans – who is also going for his first Dakar – they have already built up quite a bit of experience. They are at the start with a Century CR7.

Ronald van Loon and Erik Lemmen will start in the Dakar Rally for the second time. They will switch to the Red-Lined Revo T1+ with which they aim for the top 30.

Arjan van Tiel, as navigator of the Belgian Stefan Carmans, is at the start for the second time. Last year they impressed by finishing as third rookie. They bring the third Red-Lined Revo T1+ with a Dutch touch to the start.

Conclusion

It promises to be an interesting Dakar for cars. There are many new cars and teams at the start. Reliability may therefore be the decisive factor this edition.

There are several fast drivers at the start in, at first glance, good cars. The absolute favorites for the final victory are Al-Attiyah, Al Rajhi, Moraes, Loeb, Sainz, De Mevius and Serradori. However, the Dakar Rally is always full of surprises.

The Challengers

The car category is divided into Ultimate, Stock, Challenger and SSV. Just like the Ultimates, the cards have also been shuffled considerably in the Challenger and SSV classes. During the season, a lot has changed and improved in these vehicles. The Challengers are driven by many young talents who hope for a step up for next year, but also experienced drivers who like to compete with the young guard.

Yasir Saeidan is going for his eighth Dakar, he has driven in various car classes and was often fast there. Last year he came third in the T4 category and he dreams of winning the Dakar Rally in his home country. He will try to do that with the Taurus T3 Max, built by the Dutch Wevers Sport. The Saudi will have a lot of competition there.

Nicolás Cavigliasso won two stages in the T3s last year and wants to show his potential this year and go for the win and does so, just like Saeidan, in a Taurus. Puck Klaassen, the South African with Dutch roots, is making the switch from the Dakar Classic to the Challenger. In a G Rally Team OT3 she already drove a lot this year and she was fast, certainly a lady to be reckoned with. Klaassen is the niece of Dave Klaassen.

Besides the top three, there are many more drivers who want to win. Pau Navarro and Dania Akeel will both start with a Taurus. Saleh Alsaif will go for the win with an OT3. In addition, X-RAID will start with the YXZ 1000R, Mario Franco is the leader of the German team.

DacklaPack Rallysport, Dave Klaassen’s team, also has a Taurus T3 Max at the start, which is driven by David Zille. But there is more Dutch input, for example Paul Spierings is at the start with a Taurus. The Dutch Arcane Racing brings several cars, Gert-Jan van der Valk drives one of them. Richard Aczel, a debuting Briton who is navigated by Wouter Rosegaar, comes with another Arcane and Lex Peters drives the third T3 of the Hans Weijs team. The fourth Arcane is driven by Marinus Theodorus Streppel, also a debutant.

The SSV’s

The last category is the SSV category, which was the T4 class last year. Here too, a mix of youth and experience, with Dutch input. A number of the top riders in this class originally come from the motorcycle category.

The first ex-motorcyclist is the defending champion, Xavier de Soultrait. The Frenchman will definitely go for the win again. But he will have a tough job with the rest of the participants. Sebastián Guayasamín will be participating in the T4 for the third time and in the SSVs for the fifth time, so he will definitely want to compete for the win.

Gerard Farrés has had some bad luck in recent years, the former motorcyclist won several stages and came second twice. Will he make it this year? Jerome de Sadeleer came second last year and is also keen to win. Francisco Lopez Contardo, also a former motorcyclist, has won the category three times and would like to add a fourth time to that list. One of those young talented riders is American Sara Price. She came fourth on her debut last year and was one of the surprises

The Dutch contribution comes from Sander Derikx and Roger Grouwels, both of whom will be at the start with a Can-Am Maverick.

Photos: RedBull Content Pool, X-RAID, Dacia, DPPI

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