Mattias Ekström might not be an Audi driver anymore, but he will still have a familiar face as a team-mate in Carlos Sainz. On Tuesday, Ford Performance and M-Sport announced Ekström as the fourth and final driver of their Ford Raptor T1+ for the 2025 Dakar Rally. Emil Bergkvist will continue as his navigator.
Although he was the last to be announced, a source said Ekström was actually the second driver to be signed. He had been discreetly testing the car in Morocco in the weeks prior.
“Ford and M-Sport have built a vehicle that looks, sounds, and drives awesome and we all have a common ambition to win the Dakar Rally,” Ekström stated. “I have had four tries at Dakar so far and now I can say that I have some experience to be able to aim for the top.
“There is also a lot of knowledge and experience in the team to back up the ambition, starting with the long motorsport heritage of Ford, proven track record of M-Sport, very impressive driver line-up, smart engineers, technicians, and the rest of the team. I look forward to the first competitive outing with the Ford Raptor T1+ at Rallye du Maroc and later at the Dakar Rally. I am in it to win it and I hope we will have very successful and great years ahead of us. I will do everything in my power to make it happen.”
Ekström spent the last three years with Team Audi Sport, where he had Sainz and Stéphane Peterhansel as colleagues. After finishing ninth in the team’s maiden Dakar in 2022, mechanical issues and accidents plagued his next two starts. The 2024 Dakar saw him win the Prologue and Stage #8, but was set back by breakdowns that relegated him to twenty-sixth. He pressed on nonetheless by accompanying Sainz en route to his fourth Dakar win.