Guy Botterill: "That's my plan, to stay under the radar"

January 1 ^st 2026 - 10:52 [GMT + 3]

Sixth in his maiden start in 2024 and a second-week DNF last year, Guy Botterill is returning to the Dakar after two W2RC outings last season, with Oriol Mena as his new navigator.

"I think this year will be better than last year. I've got more experience this year, I think I'm in a better position in the team and the car. I think we're gonna have a good run, hopefully. We're always hoping for a good run. I'm quite relaxed. We've had some good and some bad, but I think that's Dakar, you've got to have good and bad to understand the race. I think I understand the race a lot better. I think our pace is good enough, we just need to make sure we don't have any bad days and just keep it smooth and maybe even slow down a little bit just to make sure we get to the end without any bad days. I'm feeling confident, I'll just try not to get overwhelmed by the race. It's a big race, lots of media, lots of people, so I'll just try and do my own thing and keep my head down and stay under the radar. That's my plan, to stay under the radar and hopefully at the end of the day they'll all be, 'Where did this guy come from?' So that's my plan.

We went through the list of drivers and we believe there's maybe 21 drivers that could possibly win. Everyone needs a bit of luck. We need to be smart. There's lots of fast drivers. I think everyone's gonna be pushing really hard and it's gonna be the person that's the most consistent at a reasonable pace, I don't think you have to be the quickest. We've discussed our strategy, how we're gonna play it, and I think we're in a good position."