“A very long mental race”
CREW FACTS
A.K.
- From a very young age, Aliyyah Koloc has witnessed her father’s success in the world of motorsport but her first inspiration was tennis. She started at 4 years old, with the ambition to become a professional player, until a knee injury set her on a different track.
- A polyglot (English, French, Creole, some Czech and Spanish as well as “very basic Mandarin”), Koloc is used to traveling around the world, and especially through the great outdoors where she’s driven top end vehicles in all sort of settings after her beginnings in circuit racing.
- The 20-year old driver already made it through the Saudi desert in the 2023 and 2024 editions of the Dakar, as she learned the ropes of the most iconic rally-raid while participating in the development of the futuristic Revo T1+.
S.D.
- A seasoned (co-)pilot with more than 200 rallyes under his belt, including 14 participations in the Dakar, Sébastien Delaunay is a staple in the desert that he also roams as a race organiser and roadbook designer.
- His Dakar feats along the likes of Nicolas Duclos, Yasir Seaidan and Bernhard ten Brinke got him to the final podium, finishing 2nd of his category on multiple occasions.
- Delaunay has put his experience and wisdom at the service of Buggyra ZM Racing and Aliyyah Koloc for two years now. “Our work will pay off in the long term”, he anticipates.
AMBITIONS 2025
A.K.: "There’s been a lot of learning and successes in 2024 and I think next year is gonna be even crazier. I’m feeling pretty good for this Dakar. In the years before, I didn’t know what to expect, so I was very nervous. And last year was my first time in the T1, the ultimate category. Now I’m going to try to improve from what I did last year. Of course, we did some developments throughout the year but it’s the same car and I’m feeling really excited.
I’ve learned that the Dakar is a very long mental race. You need to a have a really strong mental so I’ve been trying to work on that and I think I improved. I’m going to try and be more positive and just really try and be focused on the mental side of things.
We got a much stronger relationship with Seb throughout the season. Morocco was a pretty bonding experience, being in that tough situation together [they had to abandon after a crash on stage 3]. He’s teaching me a lot about the car and about driving. We make a really good team so I’m excited to go with him again.”
S. D.: “At first, it was a bit complicated, because Aliyyah had everything to learn but she’s improved a lot. We’ve been unlucky with a crash in Morocco but it’s clear that she’s been developing a lot through the year. She came from circuits and she had to learn how to work together with me, how to ride through rocks… She was afraid of punctures. Now she really gets into it.
The car also improved. She feels it a lot better so she’s been able to tune it the way she wants. It all makes for real progress. Now it’s about consistency, reliability. It’s always difficult, because there are new teams aiming for the higher positions. It’s hard to say if we’re gonna be Top 15, Top 20, Top 30… If she can maintain the pace we had in Morocco over the whole race, it will be a strong result. Last year, we had a huge mechanical where we lost six or seven hours, but it was really good the rest of the race.”
