Despite a tough rally, Toyota Gazoo Racing SA posted an impressive Dakar result.
Regarded as one of the toughest and most demanding races in motorsport, the 2026 Dakar Rally has finally reached its conclusion. For the Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa (TGRSA) team, it was a gruelling test from start to finish.
At the press conference welcoming the team back home, the team described this year’s edition as relentless: around 36 punctures across more than 7,000km, against fierce competition including the likes of the Defender Octa, which finished first and second in the Stock class on the team’s debut entry. As for the three Gazoo Racing Hilux models, they battled rocky terrain, deep dunes, complex navigation, and two brutal marathon stages in Saudi Arabia. Despite the challenges, all three cars made it to the finish line after two weeks of punishing racing.
Attending today’s briefing reminded me how brutal the Dakar is – even watching it on TV you get a sense of the punishment these drivers endure.
The team’s three driver/navigator pairings – Saood Variawa and Francois Cazalet; Joao Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro; Guy Botterill and Oriol Mena – each engaged in their own battles in the sand. The team’s youngest member, Variawa, led the overall performance, placing 10th overall and claiming the top spot among the competing South Africans at Dakar 2026.
He acknowledged that Stage 8 was particularly brutal, with punctures, a damaged driveshaft, and navigation setbacks. “It’s my third Dakar and my third finish. We had the pace to be in the top five most of the time and winning a stage really boosted the team’s confidence. Some things were out of my control and cost us time, but I’ve grown a lot, and you can see the results now,” he said.
Ferreira and Palmeiro endured one of the toughest campaigns of their careers, battling repeated punctures and a nasty impact with a rock during the second marathon stage, which significantly damaged the car’s front right corner and cost them significant time. Botterill and Mena showed remarkable consistency, often running inside the top ten, and proved especially strong in dunes and mixed terrain. Their rally campaign was repeatedly interrupted by punctures, navigation errors, and late-stage impacts, including damage on Stage 12 while running inside the top six.
As for the Toyota GR Hilux IMT Evo models, they are built by Sameer Variawa Racing and are based on the SA-built Hilux Double Cab silhouette. While the production Hilux runs a 2.4- or 2.8-litre turbodiesel, the Dakar racers use a Land Cruiser 300-derived V6 twin-turbo petrol, producing 264kW and 620Nm, paired with a Sadev 6-speed sequential gearbox. Everything is engineered to survive some of the harshest conditions in the Middle East.
Vice-President of Marketing at Toyota South Africa Motors, Glenn Crompton, highlighted both the scale of the challenge and the significance of what the team achieved. He noted that simply finishing the Dakar Rally is an achievement in its own right, given the intensity of the event, expressing pride in the resilience, determination, and performance shown by the TGRSA team throughout the rally.
Building on that momentum, Toyota Gazoo Racing confirmed its active participation in the 2026 FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC), with the Dakar Rally once again serving as the opening round and a central pillar of its championship campaign. The focus now shifts to refining performance, improving reliability and building consistency across the full W2RC calendar.
If the lessons gained and competitiveness shown at Dakar are any indication, the remainder of the 2026 season is shaping up to be a highly competitive and exciting one for Toyota Gazoo Racing.
