Only three desert racers have won both on a bike and in a car since the first Dakar Rally in 1979. Nani Roma is a member of that legendary trio and now outlines his successful transition at the world’s most notorious race.
Despite Max Verstappen’s undeniable prowess in a Formula One car, would you expect him to win a MotoGP race? If recently crowned MotoGP World Champion Jorge Martín joined F1, would he be among the favourites to claim pole position?
Multidiscipline success is rare in motorsport and this rings true at the Dakar Rally. The exception is a small group of racers who have won this mega tough rally on both two and four wheels.
Nani Roma is part of that trio and he’ll race the 2025 Dakar Rally behind the wheel of the all-new Ford Raptor T1+. We quizzed the Ford M-Sport driver on how he’s managed to successfully switch from one category to another while battling against the most extreme race conditions imaginable. Here’s all you need to know:
- Nani Roma feels immense pride at sharing the honour of both bike and car wins at the Dakar Rally with legends Stéphane Peterhansel and Hubert Auriol.
- His 2004 bike victory was claimed in Africa when the rally was “out in the wilderness so you often felt alone and in the middle of nowhere.”
- Roma reveals: “Driving a car at the Dakar is kind of like being in a boxing match, you receive really heavy impacts again and again.”
- Something that unites Roma’s bike and car success is the passion he brings to the race: “When you do something passionately it takes away all fear.”
- Roma was key component in developing KTM’s winning machinery. He’s now sharing his desert knowhow with Ford as they bring an all-new car to the Dakar Rally.
You won your Dakar Rally bike race title while Africa hosted the rally, what were the specific challenges of racing rally-raid in that part of the world?
It was a different challenge back then for sure. The first thing to mention is that we were racing for 18 days, sometimes 20. The conditions were always really, really tough. The stages were much longer and picking the right line was an intense battle.
Also, things like the food we had to eat was much different to how it is now. All of these things added up to make those African Dakar Rallies a real challenge. We were really out in the wilderness so you often felt alone and in the middle of nowhere.
In Saudi Arabia we go to the middle of the desert, but you still see people around. Often in Africa we really felt like we were deep in the middle of nowhere. Back then we had less technology helping us, less luxuries and the stages were longer. It was always a massive personal, human and professional challenge to race the Dakar in Africa.
Was swapping two wheels for four an easy decision for you?
It was an easy decision. I’d always been interested in the car category so when I got the opportunity to do some testing with Nissan I jumped at the chance. During that first test, I already felt like I had the capacity to win the Dakar in a car.
That made my decision to move from bikes to cars easy. When I won my Dakar bike title in 2004 I discussed the chance of doing next year’s rally behind the wheel of a car with my agent. I’ve always tried to take my own discussions during my career and trusted that I know what’s best for me.
Of course, I listen and also look at what others are doing, but ultimately I must take my own decisions. That way you know it’s been your choice, even if things go good or bad.
Why do you think it’s still only you, Stéphane Peterhansel and Hubert Auriol who have won the Dakar on both two wheels and four?
This is something really amazing, that we are only three that have won on a bike and in a car. Clearly it’s something that’s not easy to do so it makes me really proud that I share this honour with big legends like Auriol and Peterhansel.
I’m happy to be in this small group. I know Stéphane better than I knew Hubert Auriol, but one thing for sure about both of those guys is their passion for racing the Dakar. That’s something I’m proud to have in common with both of them. Even when I was still racing bikes at the Dakar I was always looking at the results of the car category and thinking that one day I could race on four wheels.
How is a biker’s physical preparation for the Dakar different from a car driver’s training?
Training to race bikes at the Dakar is different to how you train to drive a car in the desert. I would say that a biker’s work is much more dynamic because you move your entire body when you’re riding a bike.
Inside a car you’re always sat in the sit, never standing up like you are when racing a bike. On a bike you’re training your muscles for endurance so you can manage those really long stages. Because bikers do their own navigation they must also train to be mentally alert at all times.
In a car you have a co-pilot who is in charge of navigation. When I switched from bikes to cars I found out that I needed to change the muscle groups I was focusing on in my training. Driving a car at the Dakar is kind of like being in a boxing match, you receive really heavy impacts again and again.
One practical difference between racing bikes and cars is the amount of time you get to train with your vehicle. When I was racing bikes I had the same bike I used at the Dakar at my home. This means that throughout the year I could train as much as I liked with the same bike that I raced in the desert.
I would go out on my bike a lot in the final week before travelling to the Dakar to build up a good rhythm. When you race cars your team will always try to have as many tests as they can throughout the year, but it’s not the same as having the vehicle at your home.
When you drive the Dakar those first two or three days are hard because your body is adapting to the car. It’s always tricky at the beginning of the rally. Inside the car you’re hot, stressed and feeling all these big impacts. Then after a few days you get used to it and it stops being such an issue. As someone who has raced the Dakar on bikes and in cars this is the biggest difference I have found.
Nani Roma (ESP) and Alex Haro (ESP) for Ford M-Sport are seen at the stage 2 of Rally Dakar 2025 in Bisha, Saudi ArabiaWhat similarities and differences are there in developing bikes and cars for success in the desert and how do you put this into action with Ford M-Sport?
I worked with KTM and BMW to develop their Dakar Rally bikes. After moving to cars I was involved with Mitsubishi, MINI, then Prodrive and now Ford M-Sport. The differences between preparing a bike for the Dakar and working on a car are actually quite big.
On a car there are many, many more things to manage. Bikes are easier in comparison because you just work on changing a few things, like the frame for example. What is similar about both bikes and cars is that overall you must have a good feeling about the machine. You must also have a big passion for the work you’re doing.
You have to feel the responsibility that this is something you must get right. So while the technical aspects of preparing bikes and cars is different I would say that you must work in the same way. Working hard and working with passion are essential if you want to improve the performance of yourself and your machine.
No matter what category you’re competing in at the Dakar, why is it so important to maintain your passion for the race if you want to be successful?
For me, passion is everything. I’m a passionate guy and everything that I do, I try to do my very best. When you add passion to hard work you can achieve something special. When you do something passionately it takes away all fear.
When you have passion for what you’re doing it doesn’t matter how long or difficult each stage is… you will find a way through it. So passion is everything to me, not just in my professional life but also in my personal life. If I didn’t have so much passion for what I do I would find it impossible to be successful in the desert.
Nani Roma has joined Ford M-Sport’s line-up of drivers for the 2025 Dakar Rally along with Carlos Sainz, Mattias Ekström and Mitch Guthrie Jr. They will debut the Ford Raptor T1+ at the world’s toughest rally, starting on January 3 and finishing on January 17.
