Toyota Gazoo Racing will field six teams in the 2025 Dakar Rally. The team is made up of a mix of veterans and young talents.
Lucas Moraes will form the European part of the team along with Armand Monleon and Seth Quintero along with Dennis Zenz. The South African Toyota Gazoo Racing team consists of Giniel de Villiers/Dirk von Zitzewitz, Henk Lategan/Brett Cummings, Guy Botterill/Dennis Murphy and Saood Variawa/Francois Cazalet. Together, the six crews form one of the most balanced and competitive lineups in the conference.
Each team will use the race-proven Toyota GR DKR Hilux Evo, the latest version of the Toyota Rally Raid platform. The Hilux Evo 2025 builds on the success of the 2024 model and features improved systems and components. Reliability and performance under the unforgiving conditions of the Dakar Rally should be raised to the highest level. These improvements are in line with Toyota’s Kaizen philosophy of continuous improvement and the pursuit of excellence in building better cars.
The Toyota GR DKR Hilux Evo is powered by a 3.5 liter V6 turbo engine. The basis comes from the Land Cruiser 300. Toyota mentions an output of 264 kW (about 360 hp) and a maximum torque of 620 Newton meters. A six-speed sequential gearbox is used. The volume of the tank is 540 liters. The chassis is built on a tubular space frame.
Lucas Moraes says about the upcoming Dakar: “The Dakar Rally is always a great test for drivers and cars. This year’s route looks set to be one of the toughest yet. From the hills of the Empty Quarter to the challenging rock sections, there will be real battles every day. The GR DKR Hilux Evo has proven itself time and time again. With the 2025 revision, I am confident that we have the best machine to meet the challenge. “I’m looking forward to the start of the season and seeing how we do in such a tough series.”
Seth Quintero adds: “The 2025 Dakar will be an incredible challenge. I can’t wait to tackle it. The route is brutal and we know there won’t be easy days, but that’s what makes the Dakar so special. The GR DKR Hilux Evo is built for these tough conditions and the improvements give us great confidence.”
For de Villiers, 2025 will be his last Dakar start. The veteran holds an incredible record, having finished all 21 of his rallies – unbroken since 2003. He reached the podium eight times and took the overall victory in 2009. It was a first for Volkswagen. For many years, de Villiers and von Zitzewitz were a successful team, but after the 2019 public meeting they broke up. Now they are reunited for one last start together.
Team Overdrive brings six Toyota Hiluxes. The team leader is Yazeed Al-Rajhi, who is led by Timo Gottschalk. The pair finished the World Rally Raid Championship in second place. During the short run of the Dakar before Christmas, the pair won the Jedday Rally in Saudi Arabia. It was the final round of the four Saudi Arabian Rally Championship, which the duo had already won earlier.
Gottschalk won in Dakar in 2011 as co-driver of Nasser Al-Attiyah in VW. This is his 17th time participating in the desert competition.
