From driving school to desert: Al Dakar, with an ‘L’

This Saturday is a day you will never forget. It can be seen in his eyes. He was very happy. But his calmness and serenity are remarkable. Especially because of his childlike face. He is only 18 years old and stands out for his courage. He won’t play any video games. He will debut as a pilot in Dakar, but it says and remains very broad. “I’m very calm.” He is pau navarro. At 18, he will be the second youngest driver in the Dakar 2023on the wheel of a Side by side of category T4. He had no experience in such a long race and the Dakar simply required, a lot of prior learning. But the hands, speed and cunning he showed in his first races this year put him very much in the fight in a class as competitive and equal to T4 (light car), such as Gerard Farrés.

Pau found himself in an environment that was familiar to him. He will drive inside the structure managed by his father, Santi Navarro, owner of FN speed. He is the one who instilled in him his love for motorcycles. And since Santi founded this Dakarian structure in 2018, making his debut in the 2019 Dakar in Peru, for Pau the races are like his living room. Santi was also key to starting his son’s career, something that developed naturally at the start of the pandemic.

“All part of the Covid-19 period. I was at home and my dad saw me there and he said: ‘You have to do something.’ So I started helping in the team workshop to help prepare everything. There I learned mechanics and one day my father said to me: ‘Do you want to go to the Dakar?’. I I thought he was cheating on me. But it’s true,” he recalled with a shy laugh.

He learned to navigate thanks to the Dakar video game

Pau came to break the rules. The common path every apprentice co-pilot takes is to take lessons from experienced navigators.s, make lots of tests, study notes and signs, test with real paper ‘roadbooks’ and add kilometers. Pau also added them, but he did it in a different way: in ‘Play’. “I learned the roadbook in the Dakar game”. Anyone in his place, with a team in his family’s hands, would have asked for tests and more tests. A controller and a video game are enough for him at the age of 16. Training in 2.0, in its own way, without following the learning standards of the past and outside of everything that is familiar.

“I learned playing Dakar 2018. Video games are what real life really is. I practiced co-piloting there with my dad and he was amazed at how much the whole subject of signals resembled reality. Study notes? No…”added to this newspaper at yanbu (Saudi Arabia), in full Be Dakar Camp.

He also did not find it unusual to arrive at Dakar 2021, in his debut as a co-driver (one of the youngest in history), without having tested a section in good condition with his driver. “The pilot wanted to know if I was afraid of the truck or not. I got in one day to do four laps and that’s it. My first real test will be in the ‘shakedown’ and the prologue of the Dakar 2021. I’ve never co-piloted anyone in real life.” And practice notes? “I sang them at the game”he responded, again, forcefully, as if that was normal.

In 2021 and 2022 he was co-driver and both times he was close to the finish line, with separate abandonments on stage 11. “But I gained a lot of experience. Because I went with Alex Aguirregaviria in 2021 and with ‘Pato’ Silva in 2022″. Both have crossed a dozen Dakars on their personal account and have been key to Pau’s learning of the race. Also a pilot of the stature of Dani Solà, with who debuted last year in his first Baja as a co-driver. The next step is to put his hands on the wheel.

I need a driver’s license to drive.

To drive in Dakar, one of the main requirements is the availability of driver’s license. Pau Navarro was of age on May 17. He was a bit choked up by the theory. Training was easy. In June I got it, and a week after achieving the first goal, I was competing in the World Cup. “I tried to get my card as soon as possible. I had pressure to not pass and not go to Dakar because of that. Above all, the theoretical. I barely passed, with three mistakes. Then I left the practice. And the following week I did my first driving race in Italy. I was third there. It could be better, but I have a lot of dust”. Again, his peace of mind is surprising in believing that his premiere could have been better.

Then came his great litmus test, the Morocco Rally, the prelude to the Dakar. “This is my first race in the desert and I am second in T4. And in Baja Andalucía it went very well, I got my first victory. In the final stage he was three minutes behind Gerard Farrés with 100 kilometers to go. We’ll be back in 4 minutes”he taught absurdly. Now comes his biggest challenge: his first Dakar as a pilot after having accumulated kilometers of experience as a navigator in the two previous editions.

excludes nothing

Despite what has been said before, before the race, there is nothing in a Dakar video game. “To practice driving, I play rally videogames, because the best thing in Dakar is the navigation. I alternate both games, but at the end of November we did a test on the car, before sending the car to Saudi Arabia , and from that I do not want to touch the simulator so that the body does not get used to anything. except the car”, Pau added to this newspaper.

“But before that I used the simulator a lot, especially for meditations: In the Dakar game I put myself at the bottom and try not to fail”. Another way to prepare for a Pau that leaves nothing to be desired for the toughest event in the world.

“A dream. My father and I are both happy. win? Well… (Laughter). The goal is to enjoy and finish. And if you can… Of course, in Dakar anything can happen and everything changes from one moment to the next. Let’s see the rhythm we have. And you need to gain experience. I will try to do my best. In the end, I am very calm…”, he concluded.

Going to T1 (cars) in the future? It would be nice… but hey, if the home team has a T1 one day, it’d be great here”. Feels like home.

“Today we went to Shakedown and he wanted to beat me up,” explained his father, Santi Navarro, with a laugh. “And I told him no, that now I won. So we immediately compete with each other. Between father and son, that’s what always happens, right? And I’m proud that he beat me, huh? I don’t lose my rings,” he added.

“The only advice I give you is to enjoy yourself and have a good time in the race, because the rest of the things, you have shown that you listened to what you should have listened to. If you enjoy it, everything will be fine, here and elsewhere”. These are words from a father who is both excited and proud of his son. Pau Navarro, remember his name. He has a bright future.