Co-driving – being strapped into a car at events like the Dakar Rally, with only a roadbook to guide you through treacherous terrain. What drives people to do it? Two-time Dakar-winner Timo Gottschalk tells us.
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00:00I was always on the co-driver seat from the beginning because I was never
00:13interested to drive myself. I think the main thing at first is really that you
00:19are completely addicted to it somehow. From the mental side I would say more
00:27difficult than from the body side. You have to be awakened, you have to be focused
00:32all the time, which is not always easy.
00:37You need to accept that you make mistakes. This is normal, this is life, you are all
00:42human. You need to have some kind of luck to be able to win the Dhaka. Without any
00:49luck I think you can't do it.
00:57Co-Driving. Being strapped into a car at events like the Dhaka rally with only a road book
01:04to guide you through the vast expanse of treacherous terrain. Navigating across sand, rocks and
01:09desert requires skill, focus and total commitment to the art of co-driving.
01:14Finding a way where none exists, carving a path and forging ahead no matter what. What drives
01:21people to pursue motorsport not from behind the wheel but instead as professional passengers?
01:26Germany's Timo Gottschalk has two Dakar wins under his belt and a lifelong passion for rally
01:32raids and co-driving.
01:35I was always on the co-driver's seat from the beginning because I was never interested
01:41to drive myself so I always enjoyed the co-driver's seat. I was always the person who was quite
01:46accurate in everything what I was doing and I liked to make things properly in a very accurate
01:53way and that's why I think I was quite good on the co-driver's seat because I was always
01:58trying to make everything right and in a good moment and also 210%. So that's what the drivers
02:07liked and that was what was giving me the way to have good results.
02:13Qualities that meant Timo quickly rose through the motorsport ranks going from competing in
02:18championship rally events before finally leaping into cross country rallying with the Volkswagen
02:23team. In his third outing at the Dakar and only his second time in the car category, Gottschalk
02:29and driver Nasir Al-Attiyah finished on the podium.
02:32Volkswagen decided to put me beside Nasser which was for me something very big because the pressure
02:40was immediately very high and we were from the beginning fighting for victory but at the
02:45end it was a big fight with Carlos which ended with just 2 minutes 12 seconds on the last day.
02:52I think still until now it's the closest gap ever and Dakar final result.
02:57The very next year in 2011, Gottschalk and Al-Attiyah won the event outright.
03:01The year when we were winning especially for me it was I think was my third year in the car only so
03:08it was a really really big thing and and very nice feeling and if you cross the finish line and
03:14nearly nothing can can take it away from you anymore you are so relaxed all the pressure is
03:19falling off it's a really nice feeling. Timo has had to wait 14 long years to experience that feeling
03:25again. Winning the 2025 Dakar rally with Saudi Arabian driver Yazid Al-Raji. It was the German
03:32co-driver's 17th attempt at the event.
03:37It was very special to win it with Yazid in Saudi Arabia with the Dakar in Saudi Arabia and he is a Saudi.
03:43I was also proud to be on his side to make it possible for him to win the Dakar in his home country.
03:49But with 8000 kilometers of driving over the course of 12 days in the desert,
03:54the only thing guaranteed at the Dakar is that there are simply no guarantees.
04:01Every day something bad can happen and every day you can lose the Dakar.
04:05Their win in 2025 was by a mere 3 minutes and 57 seconds. The second closest finish in the
04:12events car category and at one point this victory didn't seem likely.
04:18We had no reverse here and we stuck in a canyon with no exit and for me I thought it's over but
04:23he somehow managed to turn the car over the over the big rocks to come out there.
04:30Timo's journey to the Dakar began in his hometown of Rheinsberg, Germany. A place where he recovers
04:36between events playing fetch with his dog Kupa to relax before it's time for another outing in the rally
04:42car.
04:42Yeah, move your way.
04:43I must say this area where I'm coming from is quite a motorsport area. There was a lot of
04:50friends and other people doing some motorsport in East German times. And then one year we
04:56thought with my friend why we should not start to do it somehow properly on an official event. And that's
05:02how it started. I think it was 1995. We did our first rally with an old East German car, the Trabant.
05:09So that was how everything was getting started.
05:12Thirty years later the stakes are a lot higher and the risks of competing in the Dakar are huge.
05:19I think trust is a very important part of all the motorsport we are doing because
05:25somehow you're giving your life in the hand of the driver and the driver is giving his life in
05:29the hand of the co-driver. So I think it's not working without the good portion of trust.
05:35And that trust transcends the boundaries of nation and language.
05:41You don't need to have a driver on your side or a co-driver from the same country.
05:45So at the end it's working even with completely different cultures. You just have to respect each
05:49other.
05:50At the Dakar, the level of responsibility that lies on the shoulders of the co-driver is immense.
05:56The need to make split-second decisions and calls, navigate accurately from one
06:01way point to the next and never let one's attention wane.
06:06From the mental side, I would say more difficult than from the body side. You have to
06:11be awake and you have to be focused all the time, which is not always easy.
06:19What we are doing now is the Dakar rally. This is long stages, just going into the unknown.
06:25It's for me more difficult in the cross country than the normal rally.
06:30I remember many, many days in Dakar you were just sleeping two, three hours in the night as a co-driver
06:35because you had the chance to prepare something for the next day. And that was okay. The co-driver
06:40who was willing to do a lot of job and sleeping less, he was better prepared the next day.
06:46But even with the road book to help competitors navigate through the unknown, it really is up
06:52to the co-driver to find a path where none exists. A gargantuan task.
06:58That's always quite difficult. As long as you have the bikes in front,
07:03they are opening the stage mainly, you have the bike mass and you have a lot of bikes passing before
07:08and as long as nobody's bike is coming back, you know the direction is good. Now, we have also
07:13many days in Dakar, we were just the cars opening the stage. If you are the first car,
07:19you just have to decide something and you need to start to take your own feeling and to understand
07:25if you are 100% correct in the road course, that is always something a little bit like a gamble.
07:31It's a lot of instinct. This is something you understand with the years of rallying,
07:36of reading the road book, where you have to be more focused and where you can be more relaxed.
07:41Even with accolades, experience, precision and hard work, things can sometimes go wrong.
07:46Being able to move on from mistakes is key to success at the Dakar.
07:50You need to accept that you make mistakes. This is normal, this is life, you are all human.
07:59If you do some mistakes, you always need to look forward and you always need to
08:05focus even more because sometimes you make a mistake as a co-driver and then in the next
08:09kilometer you always think about the mistake and then you make even more mistakes. So you need to
08:13be able to drop this in your head and just to start from new.
08:18Of his 17 Dakar starts, Timo has racked up two wins in two podiums.
08:22But he's also failed to complete the event five times. Most recently in 2024,
08:28when he and Yazid Al-Raji won three stages, but then crashed out on the event's sixth stage.
08:34You need to have some kind of luck to be able to win the Dakar. Without any luck, I think you can't do it.
08:43If you don't win an event because of some technical issue, it was not in your hands,
08:48so you cannot do nothing. So if you don't win an event because of some mistakes you have done,
08:53it is hard to swallow. But even at the same time, it gives you even more drive to try it again
08:59and to understand and to learn out of the mistakes you made and to make it better the next time.
09:04And even when a rally is going well, the pressure constantly rises.
09:09The closer you come to the finish line, the more your hope is rising. But also,
09:15the closer you come to the finish line, the more stress you have inside. You're always scared that
09:21something can happen out of your control to lose everything again.
09:25Even celebrated co-drivers like Timo struggle with self-doubt.
09:31So I'm putting a lot of pressure to myself, but I have always a feeling before a rally,
09:36I do it the first time, so it's really strange. But you always doubt on yourself,
09:40you always have a feeling like you are having like a big exam every day. I would not say that
09:48every more Dakar it gets more easy, maybe even opposite, I don't know.
09:53Despite all the risks involved, the Dakar's allure is impossible for Timo to resist.
09:59It's a competition inside a big adventure. You are facing difficulties where you just have to
10:04survive without looking on the time, just to go through somehow, to keep the car in one piece
10:09and to understand and to help yourself and to come out of big difficulties. And this is something
10:15which is a nice mix of adventure and competition.
10:19Motorsport has also taught Timo that though there can be extremely low points,
10:23they never last too long and are often followed by highs.
10:27This I learned in the motorsport that even if some days are really bad,
10:31the next days can be very good. I'm always a person which is
10:36which is seeing the good side of everything. So
10:40for me always the glass is half full, not half empty.
10:43But excellence in the profession of co-driving requires total commitment and comes at a cost.
10:50I think the main thing at first is really that you are completely addicted to it somehow.
10:55You need to decide for yourself that this is the thing I want to do.
10:59If you want to do it professionally, you really have to build everything around to make justice this
11:06thing. Which is not always easy. The family is not easy. My life is not easy. Maybe I was losing
11:11also some friendship in my life because I was always somewhere on a rally.
11:16Even so, much like when he's out in the desert trying to choose a route from amongst hundreds
11:20of possibilities, Timo stands by the path he's picked and the choices he's made.
11:25If I had the chance to turn back the time, I would do it maybe again like this.