“Straight from the heart”

As exhilarating as the Dakar is, it also takes huge amounts of passion, dedication and resilience to face and overcome the challenges of the world’s greatest rally. Luckily, car 701 will be packed with these values thanks to the inspiring association between Paolo Bedeschi and Daniele Bottallo, whose first participation in 2023 was crowned by a top-3 finish in the Dakar Classic. A former mechanic, Paolo has made the most of his craft and his free time as a retired man to dive into off road adventures, gaining quick success and living unique emotions. As for his navigator Daniele, 25 years younger than him, the inspiration comes from his father, an enthusiast for motorsports. Every year, the “Bottallos” storm Morocco with the Panda Raid. And as a visual expert, Daniele was naturally struck by the Saudi desert. Both him and Paolo return in 2024 with high hopes, in terms of racing but also on personal levels.

P.B.: “My first Dakar was even more beautiful and moving than I expected. The only problem was the cold and how wet it was, so I hope it won’t be that much rain this year! When we started, we obviously aimed to do our best but we couldn’t imagine it would be that good. And it was even more emotional because we had some mechanical struggles with the car towards the end. The batteries were not charging but in the end it worked out. We hope we’ve found and solved the issue for this year, but we’re ready for any challenge. It was very demanding physically and I’m not so young anymore. Once I had rested and got the car back home, I immediately thought about repairing it and returning to the Dakar.”

D.B.: “My first Dakar was an extraordinary experience, it was unbelievable. Before, I had done a few races with my father. I met Paolo in this environment and he offered me to do the Dakar. For me, it was turning a dream into a reality, something I dreamed of since I was 6 or 7 years old… I had a book with the greatest pictures from the Dakar, because my father was passionate, and I always leafing through it.
I have a list of all the things I want to do in my life. And the Dakar was one of those. And it has been extremely beautiful on every level: the atmosphere, the people I met, the racing with Paolo, the results that we couldn’t expect… I almost don’t have the words for this, it’s straight from the heart.
I could spend the whole day talking about the magnificent scenes we’ve seen. The first one that comes to my mind is when we ended up with so many rain on day 5 or 6… We were entering the desert and it was a very hard day with the water, the mud. But it made it the most beautiful day. It felt like we had seen everything and we could make it to the end.”