Romain Dumas will take on the Dakar Rally (again) in Ford’s Raptor T1+

French race driver Romain Dumas is to tackle the Dakar Rally for the ninth time in the Ford Raptor T1+ in 2026, the manufacturer has confirmed.

Talk about addicted. Having first entered the desert endurance event in 2015 and now 47 years old, he’s showing no sign of hanging up his race suit any time soon – and claims that the Dakar Rally is that itch he just can’t scratch.

“Dakar is a challenge, personally,” he said recently. “Each year, I’m coming back because I want to improve. I’m getting faster and faster. The target is always to learn more.”

Hard to fathom, for a man who has three Le Mans wins to his name, has conquered Pikes Peak, and rewritten the record books more times than we can count. But Dumas is adamant that desert racing is where he feels most out of his comfort zone.

“To be fair, the one which is the most far away from what I’m used to is off-road,” he said. “I always say: normally I play tennis and ping-pong and badminton, but this one is very far away from that.” Interesting analogy, but we think we get the gist.

Dumas has plenty of history with Ford Racing, of course, including piloting the SuperVan 4.2, the F-150 Lightning SuperTruck and the Ford Mustang Super Mach-E to three class wins and one King of the Mountain.

And as a warmup to competing in the Dakar Rally, he’ll be taking on the Baja 1000 in a competition spec Ranger Raptor in mid-November. Just a couple of days away, in fact.

“It's a late call to race at Baja,” said Dumas. “We decided in September.” You don’t say. There’s being spontaneous, and then there’s this.

Ford says he will run the opening leg and then hand over to teammates. Training? Forget about it. He has tested just once, with co-driver Brad Lovell. “My target is to do a clean job,” he added.

Little chance of that in the desert, we’re afraid.