Red Bull and Can-Am, a brand of BRP, are adding a fresh look and new racers for the Red Bull Can-Am Factory Team’s upcoming season, as well as launching a new Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team in a program that develops the next generation of off-road racers.
The teams’ campaign opens with the start of the 2023 Dakar Rally on December 31.
The Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team was first launched in 2020 with a vision to develop the next generation of off-road drivers for competition both globally and in the U.S., where a substantial off-road community has fostered numerous opportunities for high-level competition in addition to a growing interest in rally-raid events like Dakar.
Red Bull is now joining forces with Can-Am, the proven Dakar-winning platform with five consecutive championships so far, to increase the global impact of the Red Bull Off-Road Junior program.
The program will serve to create a career roadmap for young racers to follow their goals and dreams, identifying up-and-coming talent and helping to support their racing on the regional and national levels before taking them up to the international stage.
Throughout this process, these young racers will receive mentoring and guidance from seasoned professional racers. The Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team isn’t just limited to racers — it is also looking to identify the future talents in engineering, mechanics and marketing who can play pivotal roles in shaping the future of what the racing industry and world look like.
For 2023, the team expands from four to six drivers who will contend on two teams under the larger Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team umbrella. Seth Quintero, Mitch Guthrie and Austin Jones will be competing for the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team USA presented by BF Goodrich. Cristina Gutierrez and Rokas Baciuška will race for Red Bull Can-Am Factory Team, with Chaleco Lopez stepping in with a mentorship role for all five junior athletes.
With all six of the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team drivers having captured one or more world championship titles already, the lineup is exceptionally strong and anticipation is high for significant progression throughout the 2023 campaign.
When it comes to equipment, the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team will unveil new cars for 2023 — the Dakar-winning Can-Am Maverick X3 built by South Racing, a switch that marks a milestone not only for the team, but also for many of its drivers.
As for tires, BF Goodrich is sponsoring the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team USA.
Driving the T3 Can-Am Maverick X3 for Team USA will be Americans Quintero, 20, one of the favorites to win Dakar after setting the record for most stage wins (11) in 2022, and Jones, a new addition to Red Bull’s Junior Team who captured his maiden Dakar category win this year.
Dakar stage winner Guthrie will be running the TM5 by industry innovator MCE5, a development car geared towards a hybrid future.
For the Red Bull Can-Am Factory Team, Spain’s Gutiérrez, 31, will take the wheel of a T3 Can-Am Maverick X3. She is a third-place finisher in Dakar 2022 and is only the second woman in the event’s history to win a stage. Baciuška, a recent Rallye du Maroc victor who stormed to a third-place finish in his 2022 Dakar debut, joins the Red Bull Off-Road Junior ranks for the first time behind the wheel of a T4 Can-Am Maverick X3.
Completing the Red Bull Can-Am Factory Team roster is Chilean rally star Francisco ‘Chaleco’ López, 47, a three-time Dakar UTV winner who recently clinched the 2022 World Rally-Raid T3 championship. He will be mentoring the team as a fellow driver, piloting a T3 Can-Am Maverick X3.
Across 2023, members of the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team will compete internationally in the Dakar Rally, Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, Ruta 40 Rally, Sonora Rally and Rallye du Maroc, as well as in the U.S.-based King of the Hammers, Mint 400, Baja 500, Vegas to Reno and eight Red Bull Scramble events.
“I think there are a lot of [future] legends coming up right now and our generation of drivers — coming into the sport at the same time — is one of the fastest that rally has ever seen,” Quintero said.
He has set himself an ambitious goal of becoming the youngest winner in the history of Dakar, something he’ll need to accomplish by age 26.
Quintero, Guthrie, Jones, Baciuška, Gutierrez and Lopez will compete at the Dakar Rally, which is also the first stage of the FIA-FIM World Rally-Raid Championship. The 15-day, 5,000-km event is a tour of Saudi Arabia, departing from the Red Sea on December 31 to challenge mountains as well as the world’s largest unbroken sand sea before finishing in Dammam on January 15, 2023.