Aalthough it shouldn’t be newsit is because rare. The team Dacia who will compete in the Rally Dakar 2025 will have a lot Feminine touch. Nothing less than the team principal, Tiphanie Isnardand one of the three starting drivers, the Spanish Cristina Gutierrez, they are women. A situation that had never been seen before in rally-raid.
The French will have to manage a dream lineup completed by five-time winner Nasser Al-Attiyah and Sébastien Loeb, nine-time world rally champion who is facing the toughest test on the raid scene. And he will carry on his back all the pressure from a giant like Renault in one of the most complicated projects on the automotive scene (and if not, ask Audi).
Dakar winner with Carlos Sainz
We already know Gutiérrez, but Tiphanie Isnard is a new face for fans…although it takes 15 years in the world of motorsportsboth in rallies and raids, as he tells MARCA: “I was born in Gapand when I was little my grandfather took me to see the Monte Carlo rally super special, even if I missed school. So my passion for motorsports comes from when I was little and became a career focused on sports management“.
“I started in PH Sport 15 years ago, working in the WRC con Citroen Racing, where I met Loeb. I was there for 8 years. Then I did three with Peugeot Sport in the Dakar (sports coordinator), with two wins with Peterhansel and Sainz. During Covid I was a mother and after Bruno Famin [máximo responsable de competición de Alpine] He called me for this fantastic project with Daciadirectly for the position of team principal. “The Dakar is my passion.”
Isnard is aware that his position (and also that of Gutiérrez since There hasn’t been a woman in an official car since Jutta Kleinschmidt) generates expectation… although more behind closed doors: “It’s the first time, there’s always one for everything, but we take it naturally. We work as a team, regardless of whether we are a man or a woman. What counts here is passion,” she says.
Y who better than the ‘boss’ to talk about her new ‘pupil’the Spanish pilot [que, no olvidemos, viene también con un Dakar bajo el brazo]: “I like her that We have this same spirit: we seek maximum performance for the team“he explains. “She and I are here because Bruno Famin and Dacia have trusted us for our worth, not because they are women. If, in the process, we can show the world that We are capable of achieving great things in our positions.…better than better.”
The Frenchwoman already knew, first-hand, what Al-Attiyah and Loeb (with whom she worked in the past at Citroën and Pegueot) were capable, but it is his first contact with the Spanish…which is not surprising, although it is not like that with everyone: “Journalists are telling me: ‘Wow, Cristina drives very well!’ [la española fue la encargada de las hot laps] And I tell them: ‘Well, of course he drives very well, you don’t have to tell me!’ Surely If a man had taken them they wouldn’t talk like thatbut from his great experience”.
Gutiérrez: “It is a pioneering team”
To the Burgos woman, for her experience in Extreme E (where he currently runs for McLaren), it is more common for them to compete on equal terms with men and even to have female bosses. AND That same spirit is what has been found in Dacia in these first steps with the French team.
“I like that it is not given importance, because that means that more and more women are in important positions within the team. That It will also help to make it appear from the outside that roles like Tiphanie’s or mine are accessible. for women.” Of course, the Spaniard knows that it is not common at a level as high as that of an official Dakar team, and she knows how to value it: “It is a pioneering team in this, It’s not something you see every day.and less in the motor world”.
Something similar to what you think Sébastien Loebthe star of Dacia, with whom MARCA also wanted to comment on this peculiar feature of the teamespecially considering that he knows both Gutiérrez such as Isnard. “I think that Cristina deserves the place she has on the team I have known Tiphanie since her time at Peugeot. Although she was not a boss then, now is working well. For me The fact that she is a woman doesn’t change anything. and, in fact, I would say that having two on the team is being good for the environment.
