The electronic navigation system has garnered widespread scrutiny since the start of the Dakar Rally, with many competitors on both the FIA and FIM sides having experienced glitches or other technical issues that have resulted in penalties or worse.

José Ignacio Cornejo is not pleased with how things have gone. Following Stage #3 on Tuesday, he took to Instagram Stories to voice his frustration.

“Lots of riders have had problems with the electronic roadbook on these days and to nobody you have give time back until today,” he wrote. “Me personally, i [sic] had issues for two days in a row, riding in the dust of others to know where to go and following lines without knowing when the dangers were coming, getting lost for following others because my instruments were not working, and just today you guys decide to give time back to other riders affected…

“Why to some yes and to others no? We need to come from a first world country to be heard?”

For the 2025 season, the W2RC is mandating the use of digital roadbooks for all competitors after gradually phasing out paper rolls. ERTF, who develops the Unik roadbook system, has technicians on site to help, as was the case when Nandu Jubany received a five-minute time credit for stopping to have help administered on his. Even then, many competitors found their systems failing in the middle of the stage, too far away for help to be readily available like for Jubany.

Stage #1 was especially disastrous on this regard. Adrien Van Beveren crashed after the scroll button failed to work while Brock Heger lost his shot at the SSV win when his roadbook froze in the final 100 kilometers. Lorenzo Santolino’s Speedocap, which provides the CAP heading, malfunctioned and caused him to crash into a cactus. Laia Sanz’s roll can also be attributed to her navigation system failing.

Problems extended to the Sentinel system too, which is used to inform drivers of dangers and other cars in the area. Carlos Sainz had to nerf Mathieu Serradori, causing damage to both of them, while Nasser Al-Attiyah nearly hit another bike.

Bike overall leader Daniel Sanders, among others, have also reported having to ride without relying on their roadbooks. Naturally, this runs the risk of missing waypoints and incurring penalties, which drew Cornejo’s ire since only some riders were compensated.

Cornejo is currently ninth in RallyGP in his first Dakar for Hero MotoSports.

Featured image credit: Antonin Vincent / DPPI