Ford has recruited two earlier winners of the Dakar Rally to drive its Raptor-branded race truck within the 2025 working of the gruelling occasion.
The automaker has confirmed that Carlos Sainz Sr. and Nani Roma shall be two of the 4 drivers of the newly developed Dakar Ford Raptor. The daddy of Ferrari F1 driver Carlos Sainz Jr., Sainz Sr. has gained the rally 4 instances, together with the 2024 Dakar Rally with Audi. Roma is a two-time winner and was additionally a part of Ford’s 2024 Dakar marketing campaign, which used a Ranger-branded truck working within the T1 class.
Ford additionally teased the 2025 race truck for a second time. It is going to be a bespoke truck branded merely as a Raptor, and never as one of many present manufacturing Raptors primarily based on the F-150, Bronco, and Ranger. A earlier teaser, proven under, reveals a grille and daytime working lights just like the 2024 Ranger Raptor design, albeit slimmed down.
Ford beforehand stated it might goal for an total victory, utilizing classes discovered from the 2024 marketing campaign. Roma and co-driver Alex Haro had been categorized forty fourth in final 12 months’s ending order.
Teaser for Ford Raptor truck set to compete in 2025 Dakar Rally
As with final 12 months’s effort, the Dakar Ford Raptor shall be run beneath the auspices of M-Sport, a British motorsports firm that has operated a few of Ford’s rally applications, together with within the World Rally Championship. M-Sport can be constructing the 5.4-liter V-8 for the Ford Mustang GT3 race automotive that may compete in a number of sequence globally, in addition to the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The Dakar Rally is presently held in Saudi Arabia, however initially ran from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal, therefore the identify. Organizers moved the occasion to South America in 2009 on account of fears of competitor security, then to Saudi Arabia in 2020.
