“Why not the podium again?”
Crew facts
GF
- Gerard Farrés is a prime example of a Dakar racer. His willingness to make sacrifices, teamwork, and friendly nature, always ready to help anyone he comes across if the opportunity arises, have left their mark on the bivouac for 19 years.
- The Manresa native debuted on a motorbike in 2006, still in Africa, and was the best rookie out of the 119 riders.
- He became a support rider for Marc Coma and Chaleco López, from whom he learned the law of the desert. In 2017, he made history by finishing third with the privateer Spanish team Himoinsa in an almost impossible feat.
- His progress led to a spectacular debut on four wheels in 2019, when he finished second overall in the SSV category. Since then, he has taken another podium finish (in 2022, when he was the virtual winner until the final metres of the rally) and five stage victories.
- He also runs a year-round co-driver management agency, in addition to giving motivational lectures at companies and schools.
- Although he has not raced since January 2025, he is confident he will again be in contention for a top-five finish with the privateer, family-run Pedregá Team.
TV
- Ibizan Toni Vingut still misses quad racing, a category in which he competed five times, with his best result being sixth place in 2023. But this will be his second year alongside Gerard Farrés in an SSV and his seventh time competing.
- He has extensive experience in both quad cross and jet skiing, and has faced all kinds of challenges in the world's toughest rally.
- In 2024, he retired after a hard fall in which he fractured several ribs, vertebrae, his sacrum, and his right arm on the way to Shubaytah.
- He works in the day-to-day mechanical maintenance of a power station and lives in the mountains.
- He returned to the National Rally Raid competition on a quad, where he finished third. His dream for the future is for the category to return to the Dakar Rally or to race an SSV.
Ambition
G. F: "This will be our second year with Pedregá Team, and our goal is to try to do our best and help the team grow to put them in the spotlight for customers and brands. Last year, in our debut with Toni as co-driver, we finished sixth overall in SSV, and we will definitely fight to improve on that result this year. We are going with a machine that is not the fastest or the latest Can-Am model, but we know it very well, and in a category where so many things can go wrong, we are betting on reliability. The competition is getting tougher, and the factory teams are bringing more drivers. But we have more experience, with Toni now in his second year as co-driver, and we are confident that we can have a good race."
"We have learned from the mistakes we made last year and will try to make as few as possible. You never know, we might be on the podium again. We have the speed and consistency, and we'll fight for it. What we can't say today is that we're going out to win the Dakar. It is possible, but it wouldn't be normal. It would be amazing to be back on the podium for the third time. If someone had told me that I would compete in 19 Dakars and have three podium finishes in different categories, I would have jumped for joy. I want to thank the organisers for putting on this race; this event has given me everything".
T.V.: "We had an outstanding debut last year, with a great vibe, with Gerard. It was a last-minute decision because I had an accident in the previous Dakar and spent the entire year recovering. To top it all off, they eliminated the quad category. I have a lot of respect for him, and the truth is that we get along very well, and it's really cool to ride with him. I think there were a lot of new things 12 months ago — a new team, my first time in the category — and I think this time we can do much better, as we are more adapted. Being a co-driver is very different from racing in a quad; it's pretty stressful, and the speed changes a bit because the vignettes come together and the driver needs you to do calculations and countdowns. However, it's a lot of fun, and I've seen things I wouldn't have seen before because I was so focused on driving.
'I wasn't surprised by our sixth-place last year and, as we are both quite persistent, I think this January we are going to go from strength to strength. People are going to make mistakes, and I hope we will be able to manage them better than the rest. I am sure we are going to get a better final result."
