With the enthusiasm of a child and a speech that moves mountains, Isidre Esteve presented this Thursday morning in Barcelona his project for Dakar 2025, again, at the wheel of Toyota Hilux T1+ by Repsol Rally Team and Toyota Spain Isidre is confident in the performance of his car in the most difficult and uncertain race in the world. “Our car is competitive. In the Ultimate category (queen class of cars) there are five brands and this is something that has not happened until now. There are about 20 drivers with official structures. We are used to grids of 20 in F1 and The MotoGP, but in Dakar the grid is 70. You have to know where we are Any partial or total result among the top 20 is very good 12th in Morocco and last year we had a great that Dakar at first We have confidence and it is very good”
The pilot of Oliana, 52 years old He is an example for everyone, not only for his ability to excel and his way of facing life, always with optimism, enthusiasm and relentless work, with great insistence on all the goals he set for himself. It explains how Isidre will fulfill the 48th edition of the toughest test in the world, a total of 20 participants.
Ten of them were on a motorcycle, where he achieved two fourth positions (2001 and 2005) as the best result, fought for the long-awaited touareg and risked his life in the dangerous deserts of Africa. But he gave his greatest example later, with another 10 participation by car, after experiencing a serious motorcycle accident in 2007 that caused a spinal injury. With no feeling from the chest down, Isidre feels the same as his other Dakar rivals, whom he considers “the best example that motorsport is an inclusive sport.”
THE MESSAGE TO THE DAKAR DIRECTOR
The presentation included David Castera, director of Dakar, among its attendees. Isidre wanted to give him a clear message because of the hardness of the previous Dakar, where when he was going for the Top-20, he lost his options in the dreaded stage of the 48 Hours in the Empty Quarter desert. “Thank you, David. I’ve been to a lot of Dakars. Thanks to the 48-hour time trial stage last year. We lost the sporting options, we arrived late, it took us 5 hours to get the car out of a dune because we didn’t ‘t have a front differential And the satisfaction of reaching the end of the special… there is no one there and we hugged. The Dakar became more difficult and Isidre is happy about it this. He will go for his 20th participation and go for it.
“I, with my disability, will face the same special as everyone else, I’m in the same classification and I don’t have any bonus when I lose time when changing a tire (only his co-driver gets out of the car to change it) or whatever. “I continue to do what I love and I am surrounded by people who have surrounded me throughout my life.”I meditated last week for MD.
where is your roof
After many years full of development and breaking barriers, he competes in a top category T1+ car against the best on the planet. But behind it there is a lot of work and initial suffering in the first years of competing in a car. When he returned to Dakar in 2009, his first in cars, after reaching the finish line and returning home, he had to lay down for more than a year due to pressure sores caused by the seat. But far from the end of his adventure, it had only just begun.
He returned to the ring in 2017, 8 years later, riding a smart pillow he developed and designed with the goal of preventing these injuries from recurring. after sitting for 6, 7 and 8 hours in his car competing in the desert all day. Like this, one day after another.
He smiled again. It was 34th, it was close to the Top-20 in 2018 and 2019 and a few years ago, it took another leap in quality with Repsol and Toyota by having a top-class car, the Toyota Hilux T1+.
The question is now clear: where is your roof And his answer is always the same: “I don’t know”. He doesn’t know and that’s the best answer. Just think about continuing to enjoy, improving year after year, developing a steering wheel with adapted controls that allow you to accelerate and brake and continue fine-tuning your car. And others will come. But if someone focuses only on results, they don’t understand anything.
Your goal should be to aim for the Top-20, but in the current Dakar there are 40 or 50 cars with similar performance. Isidre fought them all numb from the chest down, so she didn’t notice when the car began to skid. You must anticipate the vehicle’s reactions with great cunning. “It’s like I’m playing,” he explained to this newspaper. This causes him to lose a few seconds in many crucial points of the stages which he recovers through his resistance, toughness and intelligence behind the wheel. And he does it with a big smile, savoring every kilometer as if it were his last with his inseparable co-pilot. Txema Villalobos and his support team, led by his physio and wife Lidia Guerrero and his ever-trusted mechanic. A set beyond any result obtained. A family. That’s the Dakar. Isidre Esteve is the best example that it is more than a career. There are many more. A story of life.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
