Source:REUTERS/JAKUB PORZYCKI
[Saba Sports News] Mexican driver Sergio Perez announced his departure from the Red Bull F1 team and received an invitation from the Ford team to test drive their T1+ car for the 2025 Dakar Rally. Perez expressed excitement about this test driving opportunity but noted that driving the T1+ car feels completely different from driving an F1 car. This year, the Ford team has four drivers participating in the Dakar, including Carlos Sainz Sr., the father of Perez’s F1 colleague Carlos Sainz, along with Nani Roma, Sainz’s former Audi teammate Johnny Ekström, and young American driver Mitchell Guthrie. The new edition of the Dakar Rally will be held from January 3 to 17 in Saudi Arabia, where drivers will face extreme heat and various complex terrains such as deserts, mountains, and gravel plains. The total distance of the event is nearly 8,000 kilometers, with each stage full of unknowns and challenges. Drivers and navigators will only know the specific routes before the race starts, and the extreme variations in weather and terrain will test their limits.