Those checking the entry list for the 2025 Dakar Rally might notice some big names are not taking part. Perhaps the most notable is Stéphane Peterhansel, missing his first Dakar Rally since 1994 in favor of doing the “real” Dakar.

Peterhansel had been racing the Dakar since 1988 and leads all competitors with fourteen total victories, six on a bike and eight in a car. Despite his age, he’s proven time and time again that he still has the sauce, winning the 2021 race at 55 years old while tying Ari Vatanen for the most stage wins in a car at the 2024 edition. However, Audi shut down its rally raid division afterward.

Since 2023, Peterhansel has been returning to his motorcycle roots by entering races such as the Morocco Desert Challenge and Swank Rally di Sardegna. In September, he won the FIM Enduro Vintage Trophy. Despite not having raced a bike competitively in years, he maintained a close relationship with Yamaha, with whom he did all ten of his two-wheeled Dakar exploits, and still uses its products.

Instead of the Dakar Rally, he plans to follow the Africa Eco Race; held concurrently with the Dakar, it follows the original Dakar route from Europe to Senegal, on which Peterhansel won nine times. He is not competing in the race itself and is instead taking part in some stages as part of the non-competition Ténéré Spirit Experience, which his wife Andrea co-oversees.

“All these years have brought me a lot of pleasure and emotions,” wrote Peterhansel in November. “But today I need a break, that does not mean that I will not come back in one way or another. In the meantime, I will be in January with Yamaha on the tracks of Mauritania until the city of Dakar…”

Also absent from the grid is EnergyLandia Taurus Factory Team, the flagship program of the Taurus T3 Max and run by the Goczał family. The Goczałs have been been one of the top teams in the SSV and Challenger classes, with the youngest Eryk Goczał winning the former class in the 2023 Dakar while the family has gone back-to-back in Challenger at the Rallye du Maroc.

However, they have also been embroiled in drama with the FIA and ASO. Eryk received a reprimand from the FIA for starting a fire to signal for help after getting stick in the desert during the 2023 Rallye du Maroc, then he and his uncle Michał being disqualified while leading the 2024 Dakar due to noncompliant clutches, and Eryk’s mom Agata had her credentials revoked shortly before the Dakar disqualification.

“In April, we received an email from the organizers with the agreements and it seemed like everything was settled,” Eryk’s dad Marek told the Polish Press Agency. “Later, it suddenly turned out no such email existed, and we were offered conditions that were unacceptable. No one is going to tell us who can be in our team,” the latter likely alluding to his wife getting the boot by the ASO.

“It’s tough. We’ll watch the rally on TV, but we don’t hold a grudge against Dakar. We already have a plan for next season, starting preparations in February with the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. Our goal remains unchanged—to have the entire Goczał family on the Dakar podium.”

Most Quad riders are not returning for 2025 after their category got axed by the ASO. Still, most like the final Dakar Quad winners Manuel Andújar and Alexandre Giroud have found new homes in FIA classes. On the other hand, Laisvydas Kancius has aborted his plans of racing due to “personal problems”; the 2023 World Rally-Raid Quad Champion was supposed to be the navigator for Gintas Petrus, who will now have Darius Leskauskas by his side.

Ignacio Casale, a three-time Dakar Quad winner before adding a fourth in 2020 in a UTV, is sitting out the 2025 edition to focus on “other projects”. It will be his first time not doing the Dakar in 15 years.

On the production-based SSV side, Ricardo Ramilo will not take part either despite finishing fourth in the category’s standings this past season. Ramilo feels he has hit his ceiling in a side-by-side, but was unable to find a ride in another class.

Truck regular Victor Versteijnen “decided to skip a year”, as will his classmate Gert Huzink. Huzink and his cousin Kay planned to race their Renault hybrid trucks as Kuipers-Jongbloed Hybrid Dakar Team, but new FIA regulations stipulated they must comply with hybrid car rules as well, which they could not adopt in time for the race. Janus Van Kasteren, the 2023 Truck champion, is focusing on a switch to a Century CR7 in 2026 hence his absence.

Medical troubles keep navigators Oriol Vidal and Kuldar Sikk on the sideline. Vidal endured an up-and-down 2024 due to a back injury he sustained at Dakar, forcing him to miss two rounds and lose the Challenger navigators’ championship, while Sikk broke his spine in an accident at the Central European Rally. Interestingly, their substitutes both come from EnergyLandia as Rokas Baciuška has enlisted Eryk’s Oriol Mena in Vidal’s place whereas Benediktas Vanagas will have Michał’s partner Szymon Gospodarczyk.

Malle Moto rider Kirsten Landman will also have to wait another year before returning. She missed the 2024 race due to a pulmonary embolism, while insufficient sponsorship means 2025 is out of the question too.

Featured image credit: Eric Vargiolu / DPPI