“I’m more confident and wiser now”

As a warm up for Cristiano Batista’s first Dakar in 2022 he and his co-driver Fausto Mota decided to enter every round of the FIA Baja World Cup. And despite Cristiano’s jetlag they won the T4 class and finished 4th overall. The 2023 Dakar was more of an up and down affair. They were second in class on the prologue, were P1 in stage 4 and P2 in stage 7. Unfortunately, in between those impressive performances there were quite a few breakages that saw them yoyoing up and down the rankings. Then on stage 12 they broke their gearbox and arrived out of time at the next bivouac. That didn’t however stop them finishing P2 again on the last day, although by then they were off course out of the rankings. Undiscouraged they again decided to go after Baja World Cup glory and won every 2023 round except the Qatar where they finished 2nd! With their second Baja world title under their belt, not to mention what they learnt in Saudi Arabia last year, they are confident of being able to put in a more consistent performance on the 2023 Dakar…

Cristiano Batista: “For my second Dakar I’m more confident and wiser and now know how to drive the dunes. I hope we will have a good race.”


Fausto Mota: “I think we could do a good result in 2023. Last year Cristiano was full gas everywhere and broke a lot of things. Now he has understood that you can’t finish the Dakar driving like that and has learnt a lot.”