“There comes a point the brain can’t reason anymore”

“The Dakar is the only missing one”, Stefano Fabiano observes as he recounts his many rallying experiences, at home, on Italian roads, and all around the world, preferably off the roads. At 56 years old, his opportunity to discover the world’s great rally-raid took shape in 2023, as the younger Filippo Colnaghi was preparing himself to take on desert racing. An enthusiast for antique vehicles, on the ground and in the air as well (he owns a Bushplane and a vintage biplane), the 33-year-old driver is passionate for the desert and is used to driving iconic cars, including his grandfather’s BMW 507, that he took on the Mille Miglia, and a GS bike that took him to Tunisia. In Saudi Arabia, Colnaghi and Fabiano face with ambition a vintage experience aboard a Nissan Terrano from 1991.

F. C.: “I love antiques, I love the desert, and the Dakar Classic brings this together. And then, with so many days of racing, sleeping in a tent, pushing the body and mostly the head’s limits… There comes a point the brain can’t reason anymore. But I like the idea of saying: ‘No, I’ll keep fighting, I won’t surrender.’
They gave me Stefano as a navigator for the Baja we did in Pordenone. It was my first proper race. We didn’t know each other, we met on the spot and it went great. I’m quite younger than him, he has a lot of experience in these races. He shows, I listen. He was proud and our relationship developed with him teaching me like an uncle would.
We both love the desert, we share a passion for Toyotas. We have many things in common and I told him to come to the Dakar with me and the Dakar has been a dream for his whole life. There are three goals: to win, to not break the car and to survive”.


S. F.: “Tecnosport asked me if I wanted to be a navigator for a young guy in the Italian Baja and naturally I did, I went to have fun. When Filippo came back, he said he wanted me to come to the Dakar with him. I called him, I thanked him and I told him: ‘Races in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Romania… I’ve done them so much, I have experience to share. But I’ve never been in the Dakar. There are people who know better how to do navigation then…’
But he said we felt good together and he knows I’ve driven many times in the desert, and through Africa, as a tourist. I’ve been doing off road races since 1992 and the Dakar always represented the highest summit in this environment. It’s the most important one.
Wherever I go, I come to win. I’m here to the best, that’s the spirit I bring in the car. But in the Dakar Classic, there will be cars that were developed years after ours. That makes a big difference. There will be people with a better preparation, with better cars, but I’m convinced we’ll do the best possible.”