Barreda: “Last Dakar? I've decided, but I can't say anything”

Joan Barreda's adventure at the 2024 Dakar ended prematurely and certified his seventh retirement in his fourteen participations in the toughest race in the world. After his departure, visibly moved by the fact of having to say goodbye, the driver from Torreblanca spoke to the media at the bivouac, and among them Motorsport.com was also present.

“You always want to do your best, but beyond that, when you look at the decision to withdraw from a race, the balance I draw from it is more than good,” explained the Spaniard, who made a good reflection after having left their mark on the desert event. “If you had told me fourteen years ago that I would do all this, I would have said it was impossible. The Dakar and everything else changed my life. I am enormously grateful for it, and I always say it, I have never denied it.”

The Spaniard was inevitably asked if this will be his last Dakar, and he replied bluntly: “I can't say anything because I have a contract with Hero, but the decision has been made. I can't say anything.”

Joan Barreda, however, was very thoughtful in the meeting with journalists and, when asked if he had any reproaches to make about his career, he said: “Not being able to win. I'm sure I wasn't able to win because of my style, what I have never given up on, my essence.”

“There were years in which I had a high level, with a lot of work behind me, but I chose to race with the team I felt good in, to continue with them, with their line”, he continued. “If I regretted it, I would tell my friends and family that I am not like that, as I say I am every day and as they love me. I don't regret anything, on the contrary, I am happy to have marked my way of being, the my essence.”

Barreda did not confirm or deny whether he will still be at the start of the Dakar, and said he hopes to return: “Let's hope so, in the end all this runs through your veins, you carry it inside you and it's clear that in a few months I will start to want to do some things. We'll definitely do some things, let's see.”

“What is clear to me and what I have always said is that I would like the day I decide to quit, I would like to do things that really motivate me, not the things you 'have' to do,” he explained. “I've done my job, I'll stop here, but that's what I do.”

The Spaniard declared that it is an honor to have been one of the best known riders in the history of this historic race, and proudly recognized that he is one of those who “changed a little” this type of racing: “People are surprised when he hears my name. That's what it gives you, the fact that they see you as someone who has left a mark. You feel the respect of the other riders and that's what fills you with the most pride, beyond the result. The fact that they see you as someone who had that madness twelve years ago and who was a pilot who was different from the others who said 'where is that going?'. Ultimately, that's what they saw in me, the pilot who he changed this sport a little.”

Regarding what happened to him when he retired, Joan said it was a mechanical problem that prevented him from finishing the Dakar as he would have liked: “We started around kilometer 515 this morning, we were catching 'Nacho' (José Ignacio Cornejo), who was a minute ahead, and behind him, in a large dune that we climbed, there were like steps, where the bike suffered, and there the clutch overheated.”

“The bike kept accelerating and wasn't moving, wasn't going forward or backward,” he continued. “I thought it was more of a clutch problem, so I decided to wait for it to cool down. Then, when it cooled down, I tried to start the engine again, but it wouldn't start. The engine wouldn't start and then the battery went. There was nothing that could be done.”

When asked what he felt at that moment, he replied: “I was very sorry, because, in the end, you are there fighting against all the problems, and even yesterday, I felt fast again, I was pushing: I had found that mix of aggressiveness, but also of safety. In the end, I had in my head that there were six days to go, that the Dakar is not easy, but that things could be fixed a little.”

“It's a shame, but racing is like this, life is like this: the team has given everything, they've done an excellent job up to now. You have to be happy”, concluded a Dakar legend like the driver from Torreblanca.