“We have a tremendous spirit of resilence”
Crew facts
P.N.
- Pau Navarro is among the promising young guns of international rally raids and belongs to a new generation eager to take on the best in the sport. He'll be aiming for victory in the Challenger category in the 2026 Dakar, after finishing third in his first Dakar in 2025. He is coming off a win in the Morocco Rally and a runner-up finish in the FIA W2RC World Rally Raid Championship in the Challenger category.
- Pau grew up in an environment where international rally raids were the main topic of conversation, as his father, who competed in enduro back in his day, founded the FN SPEED team, which has, for many years, assisted numerous vehicles at the Dakar Rally.
- Pau made his racing debut behind the wheel of an SSV in 2023, after gaining experience in 2021 and 2022 to prepare himself while waiting to turn 18, obtain his licence, and be able to drive. In his first Dakar (2023) as a driver, he battled with the best in the light vehicle category (9th) and won the European Bajas Championship in T4. In 2024, he took a giant leap forward, debuting in the premier T1+ class with an X-Raid Mini, but he retired on stage 3. For the 2025 Dakar, he decided to switch to light prototypes, where, after overcoming many breakdowns, he climbed back up to third place and earned his first Dakar podium in Challenger. Now he wants to win the category.
- He combines racing with his studies for a Bachelor's Degree in Programming, as video games are another one of his passions. In fact, he says that the official Dakar game for PlayStation helped him learn how to navigate and understand the roadbook before competing.
J.R.V.
- Jan Rosa had dreamt of competing in the Dakar Rally since he was 15, and in only his second participation, he won the Classic category alongside Carlos Santaolalla in 2024. As if that weren't enough, in 2025, he and Santaolalla did it again. His role in these successes has been key, as he is considered in the bivouac to be a star of consistency and one of the co-drivers with the brightest future on the international scene.
- The 23-year-old from Girona combines his studies with his work as a co-driver. His mind is his greatest asset. His intelligence allows him to pursue three degrees simultaneously: law, business administration, and political science. He also finds time to teach guitar, another of his great hobbies.
- Despite his tender age, the Catalan navigator declares himself to be a true aficionado of classic cars. They stole his heart from the moment he first became involved in this world alongside his father in regional trials in Girona.
- After two consecutive victories as a co-driver in the Dakar Classic, he needed a new challenge to continue learning and training, this time in speed. He wants to win again, this time in Challenger.
Ambition
P.N.: "I arrived at the Dakar as a Challenger in 2025 after a last-minute change of plans, and right from the start, I felt fast despite it being a new car for me. But from the first day, we had mechanical problems, and that persisted for five days. We lost a lot of time, which was a shame, but in the second week, we were always in the top three and made up a lot of time to finish on the podium in third place. I demonstrated that I had the pace to win from the start."
This year, I come with a much better-prepared car after competing in the W2RC in Challenger. And we won in Morocco, demonstrating consistency without taking risks. We are mature, and I will have a great co-driver by my side, Jan Rosa, who has been successful in regularity with incredible work that impressed me, which is why I wanted him to be my navigator. Our weak point is that we are not mechanically gifted, but on the contrary, we have enormous resilience. From the start, the bond between us inside the car has been special. We want to win, and we are ready to do it."
J.R.: "I didn't plan to change categories. But I did the W2RC with Pau, and the opportunity came along to do the Dakar with a top team. I saw it as a necessary step, a great opportunity. I love the classics, and I'm sure I'll compete in them again one day, but I had to try the Dakar in speed to see where it takes me. I'm going cautiously, but we want to win. Otherwise, I wouldn't have made the move to speed racing. '
"Regularity and speed are very different. Regularity is very complex, and in terms of speed, the biggest change is that now everything happens faster, and you need mechanical know-how you didn't before, which is why I've been preparing myself this year. But in co-driving, in speed racing, I have much less work to do inside the car than in regularity, where you have to make calculations and measurements with a lot of equipment. But it's true that in speed racing things happen very quickly and you have to make a lot of decisions fast, which isn't easy either."
