The real cost of the Dakar Rally
- Cat Lund
- Apr 10
- 3 min read
Now the dust has settled on the 2025 Dakar Rally, we're taking a look behind the scenes at one of our proudest partnerships, our carbon offset support for the Coronel Team, fronted by the charismatic Dutch twins Tim and Tom Coronel.
The Dakar Rally is widely known as one of the toughest and most demanding motorsport events in the world. Over 8,000 kilometres of punishing terrain, the Coronel Team delivered an exceptional performance - but it's what happened behind the scenes that tells the full story.
The Dakar In Numbers
With results in, fuel data logged, and carbon figures calculated, it’s time for a deep dive into the impact and achievements of this iconic rally raid adventure.
This year, the team consumed a total of 8,259 litres of fuel across all vehicles.
Here's the breakdown:
Rally Car: 3,925 litres of petrol
Support Truck 1: 1,450 litres of diesel
Support Truck 2: 1,624 litres of diesel
PR Team Vehicle: 1,260 litres of diesel
That equates to a combined carbon footprint of 20.11 tonnes of CO2e.
To put that into perspective, it’s the same carbon output as charging more than 2.5 million smartphones, running 80 fridges for a year or flying from London to Paris 50 times!
At Carbon Positive Motorsport, we supported the Coronel Team to fully mitigate these emissions through our high-integrity offset projects, ensuring that the impact of their rally journey was addressed in full.
"The Dakar Rally is one of the most visually spectacular and physically demanding motorsport events on Earth, but it also carries a significant environmental footprint," said Steve Smith, Director of Carbon Positive Motorsport. "Supporting the Coronel Team means we can ensure that top-level motorsport can still lead by example. Tim and Tom’s enthusiasm for our shared climate goals is inspiring, and it’s a joy to work with them year after year."
The Coronel brothers and their support crew covered approximately 8,000 kilometres during the rally - that’s the equivalent of lining up over 76,000 football pitches, nose to tail, or driving the length of the UK from Land’s End to John o’Groats more than nine times.
Tim and Tom Coronel are no strangers to Dakar, and their 2025 campaign saw them finish 26th overall in the Cars category, after consistent daily performances and a reliable run across the Saudi desert. Their experience, teamwork, and signature optimism proved once again why they remain among the most popular teams in the bivouac.
"We love the Dakar – the challenge, the camaraderie, the landscapes – but we also know we need to take responsibility for our impact. That’s why we’re proud to work with Carbon Positive Motorsport," Tim Coronel told us. "Knowing that everything we burn is being balanced by real climate action lets us race with purpose."
Mitigating emissions means taking responsibility for the environmental impact of carbon released into the atmosphere by actively supporting projects that remove or prevent the equivalent amount of carbon elsewhere. At Carbon Positive Motorsport, we do this by investing in high-quality, independently verified carbon offset projects such as reforestation, woodland creation, and renewable energy schemes that meet internationally recognised standards.
Offsetting isn’t about ignoring the problem. It’s about acknowledging the footprint left behind and making sure something positive is done in return. By calculating the exact emissions from a rally car, support vehicles, and logistics, we ensure every litre of fuel used is matched with climate action. That’s how we help competitors like the Coronel Team go beyond carbon neutral - by becoming carbon positive.
Mitigation is just one part of a wider strategy. We encourage all our partners to look at efficiency, logistics planning, low-emission technologies, and sustainable alternatives. But for unavoidable emissions - the ones that come with the nature of competitive motorsport - offsetting is a meaningful way to act now while the sport transitions to a lower-carbon future.
If you’d like to find out how your own motorsport activities, business, or club can be supported, we’d love to hear from you. Together, we can keep the spirit of competition alive while helping to protect the planet that makes it all possible.
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