“I hope the Dakar will contribute to spontaneous donations”
En bref
- Family and awareness - Rachele Somaschini’s rally odyssey is propelled by two motors. Her father Luca transmitted her his own passion and put her behind the wheel. And Rachele decided to show the world how much she can do despite the genetic condition she’s had since birth: cystic fibrosis.
- Since 2016, Somaschini is at the helm of #CorrerePerUnRespiro (#RaceForABreath), a charity project that combines her sporting activities with the need to raise awareness and funds to support cystic fibrosis research.
- The quest for a cure goes on but the developments in recent years allow Somaschini to venture in the desert for more than two weeks, and she decided to share this adventure with a 100% female crew, alongside Serena Rodella and Monica Buonamano.
M.B.
- With more than three decades as a navigator, Monica Buonamano has explored many deserts, from Tunisia to Saudi Arabia, passing by Egypt, the UAE… “My heart beats for off-road events”, she says. “But my real passion is the Dakar.”
- In her fourth participation, she puts her experience at the service of a special crew, joining Rachel Somaschini and Serena Rodella aboard a Unimog.
- Monica Buonamano’s previous experiences in the Dakar Classic prepared her for the challenges of the 2026 edition: she discovered the event as part of a female crew with Valentina Casella, she jumped aboard an Iveco truck for the 2024 edition, and she always survived the traps of the Saudi desert.
- As a six-time Italian champion of “Velocità fuoristrada”, Serena Rodella is no stranger to off-roading, but a maiden participation to the Dakar Classic takes the challenge to a whole new level - it will be her first competing in a desert, over such a long period of time.
- Rodella started racing when her partner Alberto, a motorsport enthusiast, challenged her. Her Dakar dreams have also been nourished by the stories of her father-in-law, Giovanni Bonino, who also participated in the Dakar in the 1990s.
- She began with a Suzuki Samurai, before stepping up to diesel prototypes. Now, she takes her varied skills aboard a Mercedes Unimog.
Ambition
R.S.: “The Dakar is obviously one of those events you watch with admiration on TV. It really brings up incredible images and it has definitely been a dream that started a long time ago. It seemed very, very far from reach but as I progressed in my career, the idea grew in me. A joke I often made was that when they find a cure for cystic fibrosis, I'll sign up for the Dakar and do it. It would be an experiment and a final gift to celebrate this result. A lot has been done. In fact, I'm here thanks to the immense work from researchers, which allows a person with cystic fibrosis to participate in this event, but this cure is only available for 70% of the patients, because there are 2,000 different mutations of this disease, so everyone has their own story.
It's an invisible disease, so from the outside, no one would ever say that I have this problem. It affects the main organs, particularly the lungs, so our breathing capacity is reduced compared to a normal person, which makes everything much more tiring. There are some respiratory physiotherapy exercises that I do in the morning and evening, and I will be able to take them to Dakar thanks to the support camper van that I will have during the race. So I will do everything I can to do at least one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening to keep my lungs clean. And then I have a lot of medication to take.
Matteo Marzotto, the president of the Fondazione per la Ricerca sulla Fibrosi Cistica, did the Dakar in the 2000s, after his sister Annalisa passed away due to cystic fibrosis, and I realised that I will be doing it with the same team and the same truck as him. I hope the Dakar will contribute to spontaneous donations that will contribute more and more to the #CorrereperunRespiro project.
We chose a truck because it brings an extra person on board and they tend to be sturdy vehicles. And we wanted to bring together three women. I'm into rallying. Serena has a lot of experience with off-roading and she also has a background in mechanics. And Monica will do the hard job of navigating us, keeping us on track. We haven't known each other for very long but we already have a good relationship. We want to get to the end and have fun on the way.”
M.B.: “The Dakar is always a new adventure. I change people with who I shared this adventure not only on a sporting level but also on a personal level since we spend so much time together in the cockpit. It builds sincere friendships. And then, it's also a renewed challenge to do it with different vehicles.
I want to be someone others can rely on thanks to the three Dakar I've already been in, to make it smoother and give them a sense of when they can take it easier in such a long and intense challenge.
Above all, I'm attracted by the fact we're doing this with three women. It remains an important message to put forward, that women can do the same things as men, with strength, with ambition. It's one of the driving elements of this project along with Rachele's commitments.”
S.R.: “I never thought I would be able to participate in the Dakar. It's a dream that began a few years ago. My father-in-law, Giovanni Bonino, participated in five editions of the Paris-Dakar in the 1990s, when the race was still done with a map. He told me incredible stories that made me want, more than anything else, to be part of those adventures. And now it's finally coming true. I can't believe it. It's the start of a new dream. The challenge is immense, but the determination is even bigger.
I do off-roading, but the quality of the terrain obviously has nothing to do with what this experience will be like. I've raced in Italy and a little in Croatia too. I've never raced in the desert. Still, I don't have any major problems with dirt roads, stones and obstacles. It's what I already do normally. Sand is obviously something else, another world, but we tried it in Tunisia and I hope to learn quickly.
I like that it's a new adventure for everyone. Apart from Monica, who already has experience, Rachele and I do other things, so it's all new to us and we're preparing for it and experiencing it all together for the first time. We've tested the crew a bit, we get on well together, so that's already a plus, and then the truck is something new because we only drive cars, so it's a whole other level. But it will definitely be a great experience.”
