“We will be racing against a lot of heavy hitters”
CREW FACTS
L.M.
- After a string of very strong results ‘back home’ in South America, Lucas Moraes’ 2023 Dakar debut was eagerly anticipated. But the Brazilian driver surpassed even the highest expectations by actually finishing on the podium, just behind rally raid royalty: Nasser Al Attiyah and Sebastien Loeb.
- ith more experience under his belt, Lucas was even more hotly tipped for the 2024 Dakar and living up to expectations until the penultimate day, when a suspension issue knocked him off the virtual podium.
- He was also unlucky on the second round of the W2RC when their car was completely destroyed by fire, but finished the season in 3rd place.
A.M.
- Fortunately for him and his ex-motorcycle racer co-driver Armand Monleon (10th on two wheels in 2016) the rest of the season went much more smoothly and they fought back to finish on the W2RC podium.
- With a load more experience and one of the most race proven cars on the starting list, Lucas and Armand have legitimate ambitions for the 2025 Dakar, even if they know that an unprecedented number of factory teams is going to make achieving their goals tougher than ever.
2025 AMBITIONS
L.M.: “On the last Dakar we’d just gone past Sebastien (Loeb) who was stopped on the piste and so had moved into second place overall with one day to go when we in turn ran into mechanical difficulties and ended up losing over 1 hour. That aside, Dakar 2024 was very positive for us. We were more confident and drove better and we won a stage which makes me the first Brazilian to achieve this feat in the overall car classification. That was a very big deal back home and now, very occasionally, I even get recognized in restaurants! Obviously Abu Dhabi didn’t turn out how we wanted but the rest of the year went really well and we won stages in all the races over very different types of terrain, proving just how competitive we and the car are at the moment. The 2025 Dakar isn’t going to be easy because we will be racing against a lot of heavy hitters in January. In addition to the four factory teams, there’s between 10 and 15 privateer cars that will also be fighting us for the podium. But it is really good for the sport and I am sure it is going to be a very interesting race!”
A M: “After a full season together we have a lot more confidence in both the car and each other. Lucas’ driving skills have always been amazing but we are clearly faster than we were one year ago, as the communication between us is almost telepathic, so decisions are super quick, which is crucial at this level. We’ve also worked hard to optimize the car, especially in terms of reliability. For example, the damper problem we suffered from in Saudi Arabia has been rectified. We will be up against some very quick cars in January but none of them have as many race kilometers as our does!”
