Key highlights
• Entries for Season 4 closed on 13 December. 50 FIA vehicles signed up —24 Ultimate cars, 16 Challenger vehicles and 10 SSVs.
• Dacia and Ford M-Sport are joining Toyota Gazoo Racing, Overdrive Racing and X-Raid and shaking up the balance of power in the car competition. The Challenger and SSV titles are up for grabs after the two reigning champions decided to move up a rung on the ladder.
• Innovative regulations updates will inject an extra dose of suspense into the championship, which is set to begin a fortnight from now with the 47th edition of the Dakar.
Find the full 2025 Dakar entry list here.
Dacia and Ford take the fight to Toyota and X-raid
The Dacia Sandriders burst onto the stage with a three-pronged assault on the championship finale last October, with Nasser Al Attiyah and Sébastien Loeb securing a one-two finish and firing a shot across the bows of their rivals ahead of the 2025 season. The three-time world champion and his runner-up from 2022 are good to go. Cristina Gutiérrez will be racing at their sides.
Ford M-Sport are fielding four drivers in the W2RC. Carlos Sainz, who started the season with his fourth Dakar triumph and went on to finish in the top 5, will count on the support of fellow Spaniard Nani Roma, a Dakar winner on two (2004) and four wheels (2014). Backing up these two rally-raid legends in the American squad are Mattias Ekström and Mitch Guthrie Jr., a newcomer from the Challenger class. X-raid have also mustered four drivers for their petrol-powered Mini 3.0i JCWs . Guillaume de Mévius was the breakthrough performer of the 2024 season, clinching second place overall in his first Dakar in the Ultimate class —competing for Overdrive Racing— and taking third at the Rallye du Maroc, where the Belgian got a feel for the Mini and got to know his new co-driver, the two-time world champion (2022 and 2023) Mathieu Baumel. The Red Devil is going to raise hell alongside Denis Krotov, Lionel Baud and the 2024 World Baja Cup champion, João Ferreira.
Toyota are determined to make an impact too, with seven Hilux drivers on the entry list. Three will compete for Overdrive Racing, including the two-time W2RC silver medallist (2023 and 2024) Yazeed Al Rajhi. Jean-Marc Fortin renewed the contract of Juan Cruz Yacopini, third in 2023, and recruited the precocious Rokas Baciuška, whose meteoric rise has taken him to the heights of the SSV (2022 and 2023) and Challenger (2024) classes. Four Toyota Gazoo Racing factory drivers make up the rest of the contingent. Lucas Moraes, who finished on the overall W2RC podium for the first time in 2024 after standing on the podium of the 2023 Dakar, will share the same roof with Seth Quintero again. Saood Variawa is entering his second W2RC season alongside fellow South African Henk Lategan.
Six hired hands will have outsider status in 2025: Mathieu Serradori (Century Racing Factory Team), Martin Prokop (Orlen Jipocar Team), Jean-Luc Ceccaldi (JLC Racing), Dave Klaassen (Daklapack Rallysport), Guoyu Zhang (Mintimes Yunxiang Rally Team) and the W2RC rookie Daniel Schröder (PS Laser Racing).
Toyota, the three-time manufacturers’ champion, face a gruelling title defence match now that Dacia and Ford have stepped into the ring.
Meanwhile, in the Challenger class, five structured teams and a handful of lone rangers will jostle to fill the power vacuum left by Rokas Baciuška’s promotion to Ultimate.
Yasir Seaidan hopes to follow up his recent SSV triumph with the Challenger title in 2025. The Saudi has jumped ship to Team BBR, joining Nicolás Cavigliasso, the runner-up to Baciuška, and his navigator, the 2024 champion Valentina Pertegarini. Another Saudi, Dania Akeel, who finished the 2024 season in the top 5, will be racing at his side. The young Pau Navarro rounds out the French squad, which will field five Taurus T3 Max cars.
Mission accomplished for Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team USA by BFG: Quintero, Gutiérrez and Guthrie will all be factory drivers in the Ultimate class in 2025, while Guillaume de Mévius, who also used to be part of their structure, is also playing in the big leagues. A new generation of rally-raid talent is emerging in the shape of two 23-year-old drivers. The American Corbin Leaverton is a worthy successor to Quintero and Guthrie. The Californian has already picked up several titles in the World Off Road Championship Series (WORCS) and Best in the Desert (BITD) events on the other side of the pond. Gonçalo Guerreiro, the 2022 Portuguese national cross-country champion, a three-time winner of Baja Portalegre in his class, will fly the flag for Europe.
The Argentinian David Zille will be driving a Taurus (Daklapack Rallysport), just like Team BBR and Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team USA by BFG.
Nasser Al Attiyah is making waves with the debut of his own team. Nasser Racing, which has the backing of the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF), will be fielding three crews: Khalifa Al Attiyah, the other Al Attiyah brother, who made his first international appearance at the 2021 Andalucía Rally; Abdulaziz Al Kuwari, the title holder in the Middle East Rally Championship (MERC), which Nasser Al Attiyah won nineteen times; and the Spaniard Eduard Pons, who claimed the World Baja Cup in the Challenger class (third overall) this season.
G Rally Team and Franco Sport live by the maxim “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. The team founded by Guillaume de Mévius will continue to place its trust in Rui Carneiro and the other female driver in the class, Puck Klaassen. Meanwhile, the Portuguese outfit with Yamaha vehicles has entered Mario Franco and Pedro Gonçalves. The Emirati Khalid Aljafla (Aljafla Racing), who finished on the podium of the 2024 World Baja Cup in the Challenger class (fifth overall), and the Pole Adam Kuś (Akpol Recykling) are joining the caravan too.
In the SSV class, Seaidan’s move up to Challenger is fuelling an American dream! Sara Price, second overall at the 46th Dakar in her latest international appearance, is bursting with ambition after becoming a Can-Am Factory driver. Scott Abraham’s South Racing team is banking on the new Can-Am Maverick R and focusing on the SSV class with an Argentinian triumvirate: the World Baja Cup champion in SSV (second overall), Fernando Álvarez, the quad World Cup champion Manuel Andújar, and Diego Martínez. Italy is pinning its hopes on quantity and experience. Two Italians in the top 10 in 2024 are coming back for more: Enrico Gaspari (TH Trucks) and Michele Antonio Cinotto (CST XtremePlus Polaris Team) in a Polaris. The German Roger Grouwels (Raceart), the Portuguese Alexandre Pinto (who won the Road to Dakar Challenge at the Rallye du Maroc) and the Spaniard Carlos Vento (Old Friends Rally Team) are all set for their debuts. Claude Fournier (MMP), the grandfather of the W2RC house, has no intention of missing a single championship round!
Regulations changes
Rule changes for the 2025 season will award more points to highlight various aspects of a competitor’s skill set:
– Starter and Finisher Points: the top 15 riders in a rally format round will continue to earn 30, 25, 20, 17, 15, 13, 11, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2 points, respectively, with an additional 2 points now awarded from sixteenth place onwards to all classified competitors, along with 1 point for unclassified competitors. For Marathon events (more than five stages) such as the Dakar, the specific points scale (50, 40, 30, 26, 23, 20, 17, 15, 13, 11, 9, 7, 6, 5 and 4) doubles these additional points: 4 points for classified competitors from sixteenth place onwards and 2 points for unclassified competitors.
– Power Selective Section: held at the very end of the rally, this final sprint, stretching for 5 to 30 kilometres, will reward the three fastest crews in each class with 3, 2 and 1 points, respectively. The Power Selective Section will be a recommendation for organisers in 2025 and mandatory in 2026.
– Manufacturer stage points: following the model of stage points awarded for individual performances (driver and co-driver) on every stage of the rally, the five fastest cars nominated by manufacturers to represent them will earn between 5 and 1 points.
2025 calendar
