“My 2023 Dakar was really unbelievable”

Last year, before he’d actually raced the Dakar, many ‘pundits’ reckoned he could go well in Saudi Arabia. Not least Red Bull, with whom he’d just signed a coveted sponsorship deal. The reason: his impressive results ‘back home’ in South America. These included winning the Mitsubishi Cup twice, the biggest single-make competition in South America, the Brazilian championship three times and South America’s toughest race, the Rally dos Sertoes twice, first in 2019 and then in 2022 with Toyota Overdrive. ‘Overseas’ pre-2023 Dakar warm up races like the Baja Aragon, where he finished third behind Al Attiyah and Al-Rajhi, or the Dubai Baja where he won the first day, did nothing to lessen the buzz. But even his most fervent supporter would have been hard pushed to predict that for his very first Dakar Lucas and co-driver Timo Gottschalk would finish on the podium just behind the likes of Nasser and Sebastien Loeb and in front of a whole host of other, much more experienced and decorated drivers. For the 2024 Dakar, Lucas will be teaming up with the hugely experienced ex-motorcycle racer Armand Monleon, who last year navigated for Jakub Przygonski aboard the new Mini.

Lucas Moraes: “My 2023 Dakar was really unbelievable, being a rookie among all those legends. We adopted a good strategy and a good pace from the beginning, not taking too many risks and it paid off for sure. I couldn’t have been more grateful to the team and all the sponsors that helped us. Since then I have been training a lot back in Brazil and competing in all the national races we have back there, racing an SSV. And then I went to Baja Aragon where we finished second, winning the first day with Toyota Overdrive. To be honest, I was not sure, until August, if I would ever come back to Dakar and then after Sertoes things started to get moving with the Toyota Gazoo team and Red Bull. It’s great to have Armand as my co-driver and we’re getting along well. Last year with Timo was really amazing but of course he had to move on with Yazeed. Obviously we know how hard the Dakar is so we have to keep our feet on the ground but it would be amazing to finish in the top 10, top 5. We’re really looking forward to it.”

Armand Monleon: “With the Dakar you never know but I’d say all the ingredients are there. Lucas is a very smart and talented driver, as he proved last year, and is hungry for a result. We have a good connection in the car and the Toyota is a proven winner with a good reliability record. But the competition is tough and it is going to be a very interesting race. Audi have been working hard to improve their car and the Hunter is fast, especially on the WRC type tracks. It will be important to stay in the top 10 and then see what we can do for the podium.”