Dakar Rally: Amputee Racer’s Inspiring Comeback with Prosthesis

Mathieu Bäumel, Nasser Al-Attiyah’s former co-driver, was absent from last year’s Dakar. Instead, he drove the veteran competition Rallye Monte Carlo Historique. During the race, he pulled over to the shoulder to help another crew in an Alfa Romeo when another car hit the stationary vehicle, which subsequently hit Bäumel…

“My accident happened on January 29, 2025, and I knew right away that it was bad. Everything fell apart in an instant. You say that your life is over, but you have to deal with the situation. But the life we ​​lead in the Dakar helped me manage everything, because like a good co-driver, I organize everything,” recalls Bäumel. “I called family, 911 and gathered documents while I was still conscious. Even though I might not survive this.”

When he woke up from the coma, doctors explained two possible scenarios. “I decided to amputate my entire right leg because there was little chance that I would ever be able to use it again. And even if I could, it would take me ten years. And Guillaume De Mévius and I had agreed to ride the Dakar 2026 together. The doctors said to forget it, that my recovery would take two years, but I had a ten-month deadline in my head. And now here I am.”

Bäumel has a flexible stem that allows him to sit in the racing seat for longer periods of time. It has a system that disconnects the upper and lower parts of the prosthesis, so it can only stand on one leg. He also underwent special rehabilitation. He trained hard, so much so that his physical therapist tamed him, but he still worked out secretly. Even the doctors had fun with him. Together, they focused on restoring strength, mobility and focus. “I needed to build up my muscles, lose a few pounds and work on my focus,” he says candidly. “I still can’t put my full weight on my left leg today, but I’m here and that’s what matters.”

Anyway, Mathieu Bäumel managed what everyone thought was completely impossible in the spring. He returns to the Dakar, the toughest endurance race in the world.

And the huge distances on the Dakar Rally are one of the biggest unknowns. “The length of the race is one of my biggest concerns,” he admits. “We’ve done some tests and competed in the three-day Baja, but fifteen days of non-stop racing is something completely different. The head is ready, the body has to follow. But how it will be in real life remains to be seen, anyway, I have a physio here with me who will try to keep me in shape the whole time.” In order to be as well prepared as possible, Bäumel has been working carefully on every detail since September, when it was definitively clear that the sentence: “I will return to the Dakar,” will become a reality in the coming year.

“During the race, I’m firmly strapped into the seat with a five-point belt, I don’t need my leg there, but the situations when I and Guillaum have to get out of the vehicle are completely different,” he explains. “So a flat tire can become a real challenge, because with my prosthesis it makes a big difference if the flat tire is on the left or the right.” Getting out of the car, especially in deep sand, requires a lot of physical effort from him, then he has to get back into the car again, the threshold of the car is more than a meter high…

In normal life, Bäumel wears a carbon prosthesis and you wouldn’t know what he’s wearing in long pants, but for the race he decided to ride with a special short prosthesis. “When something does happen, whether it’s a puncture or we have to repair something, it’s much quicker for me to be on my knees than to try to get up repeatedly. Anyway, there’s room in our Mini JCW for a longer prosthesis with a quick-change system, just in case,” he laughs.

As the racers spend really long hours in the car, both at race pace and on crossings, Bäumel has a special custom-made seat that stabilizes and comfortably supports the upper part of the prosthesis. His racing overalls were also specially modified. “Sparco homologated several modifications so that I could change the prosthesis faster,” says Bäumel. In addition, our car is equipped with a specially designed holder that safely stores the prosthesis and is always at hand.

The three-day race that De Mévius and Bäumel completed before the last race was the Jeddah Baja in early December. “There were a few more things that we had to improve, but now we are here and I believe we are ready. And our goal is clear – to reach the finish line!”