Seth Quintero and Lucas Moraes join Toyota for Dakar 2024
The official Toyota team will be composed of two new drivers for the Dakar 2024 in the premier T1+ category.
A few days after the official departure of the Nasser Al-Attiyah/Mathieu Baumel duo, the Toyota Gazoo Racing team announced the arrival of two young and most promising rally-raid drivers in their ranks.
Winner of the last two Dakar rallies with the Franco-Qatari duo, the Japanese brand wanted to make a strong impact in order to try and retain its title in the most prestigious rally-raid. Therefore, Toyota is counting on youth to reach its goals, with the American Seth Quintero and the Brazilian Lucas Moraes.
At just 21 years old, Quintero has just won the World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC) in the T3 category behind the wheel of a Toyota Hilux. Protected by Red Bull for several years, he will team up with German Dennis Zenz, who has already accompanied him throughout the year as his navigator.
“I am addicted to the idea of progressing, obsessed with it, and this step towards the T1+ category is what I have been thinking about for a long time now,” Quintero said after the announcement of his official inclusion in the top rally-raid category with Toyota. “I have always been fast in short relays, but I have also learned to be fast for two-week races.”
On the other official Toyota, it will be Brazilian Lucas Moraes and Spanish Armand Monleon on board. At the age of 32, Moraes impressed during his first Dakar in 2023. Behind the wheel of an Overdrive team’s Hilux, he finished 3rd, less than twenty minutes behind Sébastien Loeb’s second place, thus becoming the first Brazilian driver to step onto the podium of the Dakar in the T1+ category.
The Toyota Gazoo Racing team won titles in all the global categories in which they were involved in 2023, whether it was in the world rally-raid championship (W2RC), the world endurance championship (WEC), or the world rally championship (WRC).
In 2024, the Japanese firm will have a tough challenge in the Saudi Arabian dunes against Stéphane Peterhansel and Carlos Sainz’s Audis, as well as Nasser Al-Attiyah and Sébastien Loeb’s Hunters.
An exceptional plateau that will be found from January 5th in Alula for a nearly 5,000 kilometers loop along the shores of the Red Sea to Yanbu.
