Pau Navarro seems to be eager to try new things in 2026. This will include adding the Taklimakan Rally to his résumé in May, where he will drive for Great Wall Motor. His usual navigator Jan Rosa will also join him.

“We are really excited to start a new project in a new category for us and work with the human persons that are behind the brand, behind the project. I know some of them,” Navarro said on Monday. “It’s truly an exciting moment for us and we know that we will be working a lot but we are really excited.”

After coming up short in the 2025 W2RC Challenger title battle, Navarro won Janaury’s Dakar Rally in the class. In March, he debuted the Viking Challenger at the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal, though the run was plagued by various mechanical issues. He had been closely involved with SRT in developing the Viking over the winter, and the T3 car recently finished the Morocco Desert Challenge with Mikko Ikonen as driver.

Since Navarro isn’t a factory driver for any manufacturers, he’s happy to lend his services to teams wanting to test and race their products. Similar to SRT with the Viking, Great Wall Motor has been looking to expand its rally raid division since reviving the arm in 2025.

GWM fielded a football side’s worth of T2 cars in the 2025 Taklimakan Rally, where Liang Zhihui won in a Tank 300. Chinese drivers will certainly remain part of the GWM progam, but the manufacturer has also enlisted foreign drivers like Gerard Farrés.

Featured image credit: Jennifer Lindini / ASO