FORD

 He declares with determination that doing and winning the Dakar is the most daunting challenge of his career. That goes to show the importance of the event for this virtuoso jack-of-all-trades. When he finds himself behind the wheel of a car, whatever the terrain, Mattias Ekström knows what he's doing. Born in Sweden, this lad forged his passion for motorsports with all sorts of vehicles while enjoying the wide-open spaces of his country. Glory came later with two DTM titles, followed by a Rallycross World Championship, three victories in the Race of Champions and his first title in the Pure ETCR series. Ekström's presence on the Dakar was a given. A pure Audi product, the Swede has spent his entire career with the legendary German manufacturer. Before sitting in the driver's seat of the RS Q e-tron, the 43-year-old had a taste of the Dakar in 2021 when he raced a Yamaha T3. Although the experience was complicated, it opened his eyes. Although he didn't finish the rally, he appreciated the difficulties involved. A year later, for Audi's big debut, the Swede put in the best performance of the clan by finishing in the Top 10 (9th). His latest Dakar outing, like the overall performance of the Audi team, remains a disappointment. Although he was the only one of the three drivers to finish, his 14th-place result was a huge disappointment. With his trusty navigator Emil Bergqvist, a former rally driver, he went back to work. While the Audi team was fine-tuning the RS Q e-Tron in its German facilities, he preferred to get back behind the wheel of a CanAm T3 to gain even more experience in Abu Dhabi, Mexico and Argentina (W2RC rounds). The crew had to wait until the end of July and the Baja Aragon to climb back into their Dakar mount before finding it again on the Rally of Morocco in October, where they finished eighth. There is still a long way to go in Mattias Ekström's mad quest to win the Dakar, and time is running out.