SA Toyota team believes it can win Dakar Rally 2025

SA’s Toyota Gazoo Racing team heads into the 2025 Dakar Rally hoping to fight for overall victory after a challenging 2024 outing in which Guy Botterrill was its highest placed driver in sixth.

Speaking at the send-off event for the four-car team in Joburg on Thursday, Toyota SA was quietly confident it has the vehicle and drivers to challenge for the podium and hopefully victory, but acknowledged it would face tough opposition with about 15 drivers capable of winning.

Audi has ended its rally project after winning this year’s Dakar in January, but the SA-built Hilux DKR Evo will have its hands full with new contenders in the event which takes place in Saudi Arabia from January 3 to 17.

The 47th running of the gruelling off-road race has new cars from Ford and Dacia joining the fray, including five-time Dakar winner Nasser al-Attiyah and nine-time World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb in the Dacia Sandriders, and reigning Dakar champion Carlos Sainz leading a four-car Ford Raptor crew. Another top contender could be Guillaume De Mévius in a MINI JCW Rally, who placed second last time out. 

After sitting out Dakar 2024 with a shoulder injury, Henk Lategan returns to Saudi Arabia as probably Toyota Gazoo’s strongest hope with this year’s local South African SA Rally Raid Championship (SARRC) under his belt.

He is joined by Botterill, Saood Variawa — both of whom made their Dakar debuts in 2024 — and veteran Giniel de Villiers who was seventh in this year’s event and is competing in his final Dakar for Toyota. De Villiers, in his 22nd Dakar, reunites with co-driver Dirk von Zitzewitz as the winning duo from the 2009 event.

Alongside the SA crews, the Toyota Gazoo Hilux line up is completed by the European-based teams of Seth Quintero and Lucas Moraes.

With Dacia and Ford making their debuts in all-new cars, Toyota believes it may have a reliability edge with its GR Hilux, an evolution of the previous vehicle that has been updated to better handle the extreme demands of the Dakar Rally. The vehicle has proven itself in the 2024 SARRC season, securing multiple wins and the championship title.

It is powered by a 3.5l twin-turbo V6 from the Land Cruiser 300, producing 264kW and 620Nm of torque. It has a lightweight tubular frame chassis, a 540l fuel tank for extended endurance stages and double-wishbone suspension with 350mm of travel to absorb big impacts.

“The GR DKR Hilux Evo has been refined through countless kilometres of racing, including our success in the 2024 SARRC,” said team principal Shameer Variawa. “This is a car that is as reliable as it is fast. We believe it’s the perfect machine for Dakar 2025.”

There is raised local interest in the Dakar Rally after the announcement that SA has been awarded a round of the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) for the first time next year. Named the South African Safari, it will take place from May 18-24 2025 in North West and Limpopo as the third round of the five-event 2025 W2RC, of which the Dakar Rally is the opening round.

The 2025 Dakar Rally will have 12 desert stages covering over 5,000km of racing. Two standout challenges include the 48-hour Chrono Stage, a tough test of endurance and mechanical reliability, and the notorious Marathon Stage where crews must complete two days of racing without external assistance from service teams.