“I’m looking forward to competing in a top level car”
CREW FACTS
M.G.
- For his first Dakar outing in 2021 Marcelo Gastaldi set himself the ambitious goal of finishing first rookie aboard his Century Racing CR6 and was on target until he crashed in the dust and limped into the bivouac a lowly 52nd.
- Still, for a man who has only been racing cars for 2 years it was a promising debut and one he intended to improve on in 2022. In the end events conspires to see him finally finish in 30th place overall.
- Marcelo gave the 2023 edition a miss but was back in 2024 in the super competitive Challenger T3 class, finishing 7th in his French MCE5 Taurus. Along with his co-driver Carlos Sachs he went on to finish P3 in the W2RC.
- For 2025 Marcelo will have a change of category and co-driver. The Brazilian will be moving up to the Ultimate class aboard the new Century Racing CR7 4x4 alongside Portuguese speaking Frenchman Adrien Metge but doesn’t plan on doing the rest of the W2RC in 2025.
A.M.
- Adrien Metge raced five Dakars on a bike achieving two Top 15 finishes.
- He still races the Brazilian rally championship as a factory Yamaha rider. He’s won the prestigious Rally dos Sertoes twice and the Brazilian championship four times consecutively and is the current title holder;
- Metge moved to the co-driver’s seat in 2023 alongside Santiago Navarro taking an excellent 9th position on the last Dakar.
- In 2024 he raced the Dakar with Saudi driver Yasir Seaidan and finished 3rd in the SSV T4 class. Adrien’s brother, ex-Yamaha factory rider Mika was alongside him on the podium, as he finished in second place in the category, co-driving for Jérôme De Sadeleer.
- As Adrien wasn’t available to race the rest of the 2024 W2RC, due to his commitments with Yamaha, his brother took over for the rest of the season with Yasir Seaidan and will continue into 2025.
2025 AMBITIONS
A M: “I’m really happy to have this opportunity to co-drive for Marcelo. I know him from the Brazilian championship and we’ve always got along well. Plus, I speak pretty much fluent Portuguese so that helps both in and out of the car. I’m one of very few competitors who races professionally in both cars and bikes and while it isn’t always easy to schedule everything, the two are very complimentary. It is interesting to note that since David Castera announced that there will be days on the Dakar when bikes and cars will have separate routes, bike riders have become a popular choice for car drivers with ambition. Before, even the best car navigators had motorcycle tracks to follow but now, for 5 days on the 2025 Dakar that won’t be the case and only top bike riders have that experience. I’m also the only co-driver who has a brother doing the same thing. We talk a lot about the challenges of navigating, for example managing the relationship between drivers and co-driver and I think that has been useful for both of us… I haven’t yet driven with Marcelo or in the new car, so the shake down in Saudi is going to be important, but I’m not overly concerned. Marcelo is a very good, experienced driver, the new car performed well in Morocco and I’m looking forward to the experience of being in a really fast car. Obviously it is going to be quicker than an SSV but I think if you ride a motorcycle at a high level you don’t scare easily!”
