"Finishing safely is victory"
En bref
P.T.
- Po Tian is back for his fourth Dakar in the Ultimate class in 2026. It's also his fourth with the HanWei Motorsport Team, owned by his good friend Wei Han. This year he lines up with a new navigator, Dakar rookie Simuren Ha.
- Inspired by Wei's 10th place at Dakar 2020, Po got in touch with the team and did his first two Dakars for them in an SMG buggy. In 2022, he and Du Xuanyi finished as the top rookies (32nd) before improving one place at Dakar 2023 (31st).
- Po returned in Dakar 2025 at the wheel of a Red-Lined REVO T1+ and with a new co-driver, Hangting Guo, but they were forced to retire at the end of the first week after exceeding the permitted number of missed waypoints.
- The 57-year-old has been following motorsport for a long time. He used to watch stages of the Dakar in Africa and dreamed about taking part, even if he never seriously expected it to happen. He has also held a driving licence for around 40 years without ever having a road accident.
S.H.
- Simuren Ha is an experienced navigator who has been taking part in rallies for well over a decade, although this will be his first outing at the Dakar.
- The 35-year-old fell in love with motorsport in 2012, when he and a friend took part in an offroad desert race in Wuhai. He did his first Taklimakan Rally in 2016 and has gone on to collect a host of domestic championship titles.
- Simuren first learned about the Dakar in 2018, when he worked as a coach for the Kubuqi Dakar Academy, a rally-raid training centre set up with the support of 1998 winner Jean-Pierre Fontenay. Simuren particularly admired the man behind the project, Meng Guangyuan, a former Dakar participant turned rally instructor.
Ambition
P.T. "When I returned to the Dakar last year, I was immediately struck by that familiar sense of challenge, something I truly cherish. Unfortunately, early in the rally, we accidentally hit a rock while navigating through some complex terrain and damaged our headlights. That had a big impact on our subsequent progress through night stages and low-visibility sections, and we ended up withdrawing because we exceeded the limit of missed waypoints. But every crew faces those kinds of minor hiccups at the Dakar. The experience served as a valuable lesson in our post-race debrief. It helped us to refine our attention to detail for future collaborations and build experience for the next event. The change of co-driver this year wasn't a last-minute decision. It has actually been in the pipeline since 2024. I look forward to competing with Simuren, who's an experienced navigator. We got to know each other at Chinese competitions and we've raced together multiple times, developing strong chemistry. Last year Hangting Guo and I drove the Red-Lined V8, but this year we have switched to the HWM T1+, with a new VR38 engine. It has been tested extensively in China over the past year and put through its paces in two races. Our ambitions? When it comes to the Dakar, finishing safely is victory."
S.H.: "I first began competing in 2012 and started doing the Taklimakan Rally in 2016. I started to gain a lot of rally-raid experience and secured numerous titles at grassroots racing events. This year I will be competing in the Dakar for the first time, and I have high expectations for my journey. My biggest hope for Dakar 2026 is that this first partnership with Po Tian will result in a safe and successful finish. I hope we can achieve a good result together."
