The Dakar 2024 starts on January 5 in Saudi Arabia. Having a good support team, being self-sufficient, having good organization and anticipating everything that may be needed in advance are the keys to the team led by Isidre Esteve. The logistical work begins about six months before the Dakar, with the complete provision of all the necessary material for the team to function like clockwork in the race.
For this edition, Esteve and Villalobos will have at their disposal 6,200 liters of Repsol renewable fuel that were sent to Saudi Arabia in October.
The challenge of the Dakar is not only a question of driving skill and navigation expertise. The Repsol Toyota Rally Team competes in a second parallel race each day, to guarantee perfect assistance to Isidre Esteve and Txema Villalobos. In this way, the Toyota Hilux T1+ number 235 can address each new stage to the best of its capabilities.
To begin with, there is prior work that begins about six months before the Dakar, consisting of making a complete forecast of all the material that the team will need. «We don't ask for things today and they arrive tomorrow. To organize ourselves as best as possible, we have to anticipate a lot,” explains Isidre Esteve. «We have to order the material around the month of June to be able to have it in October, after the Morocco Rally. That's when we work the most with the car. In fact, we make it almost new for the Dakar,” says the pilot from Ilerd.
This prior preparation is followed by the logistical challenge of the race in the field. The Repsol Toyota Rally Team is made up of three mechanics and a physical trainer, and is complemented by the assistance of Toyota Overdrive. «Our closest core are our mechanics David Pigem, David Fabrellas and Carles Méndez. Then there is Lidia Guerrero, who takes care of my daily physical recovery. “They move from camp to camp with our T5 truck and the mechanics' 4×4,” details the pilot.
«The important thing is the whole; the sum of the two structures. With Toyota Overdrive we have a T4 assistance truck on the track, loaded with spare parts, with an engineer and a mechanic, to solve possible problems in the middle of the special. At the end of the stage we have their trucks with the spare parts and their engineers specialized in each aspect of the car (data, transmission, suspensions, electronics…)”, Esteve values.
Chief mechanic David Pigem specifies this distribution of tasks. «We carry a little of everything, basically consumables. Repsol lubricants, brake discs, pads, ball joints, bearings, filters, rims… All the most common material to change. And everything that is large materials, such as gearboxes and differentials, is carried by Toyota Overdrive,” lists this mechanic from Girona, with experience in the World Rally Championship, who has worked with Isidre Esteve and Txema Villalobos since the driver from Oliana returned to the Dakar, in 2017, thanks to the development of the smart cushion, which allows you to ride without fear of pressure ulcers in the buttocks.
Even then Isidre had the support of Repsol, KH-7 and MGS Seguros, which gives a good example of the complicity and understanding of the team. In 2021 Toyota joined them, with a first Hilux with adapted driving controls on the steering wheel. In 2024, for the third consecutive year, the Repsol Toyota Rally Team will use Repsol's renewable fuel in the Dakar, now produced 70% from organic waste, with the aim of continuing to move towards zero emissions. Last October, the team transported 6,200 liters of this Repsol renewable fuel to Saudi Arabia. The Dakar organization is in charge of transporting it to the different camps, in 200-liter drums.
Returning to the specific logistics of the team, the Repsol Toyota Rally Team transports all its material in its own workshop truck that also serves as housing for the mechanics and drivers. All the material is properly organized in boxes. “Each box has a specific material and a label that indicates what is inside, so you know at all times where everything is,” explains Pigem. «In the Dakar, time is money; “It's about optimizing it to the maximum.”
Isidre Esteve concludes: «This way of organizing ourselves, with the most basic wear and tear material in our own truck, allows us to be self-sufficient and agile in rapid assistance. And then we have Toyota Overdrive on our side if we need other assistance.” The success of the Repsol Toyota Rally Team in the Dakar, then, does not depend only on Isidre's driving and Txema's navigation; Behind it there is a whole team, agile and integrated, that forms a big little family.
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