My post title isn't in reference to the latest MDMA drug to hit the market, but a recently launched motorsport event with a higher purpose.
Extreme E is a series with a mission, to highlight the devastating effects of the climate crisis and demonstrate positive steps that can be taken to protect the planet source
With sustainability at the core of the sport, it also has the objective of being carbon neutral over the course of the season. For motorsport of this nature, that's quite a goal.
I'll talk a little bit about the sport before quickly summarising the 1st race which happened in AlUla (Saudi Arabia) last weekend.
The Cars
Now the cars might look like Batman's Tumbler and there's a good reason for that. Extreme E is an offroad series, racing on a variety of surfaces in a variety of climates, from Arctic Ice in Greenland to the Desert Dunes in Saudi Arabia.
Batman's Tumbler
Extreme E Car
The cars were designed by Formula E Constructors Spark, the battery by Williams and tyres also specifically designed by Continental Tyres. Again, with sustainability in mind, once the battery is no longer suitable for racing, it can be reused as a solar battery store for a school in Sierra Leone (for example).
Transportation
Again, so as to keep carbon footprint to a minimum, all infrastructure, teams and cars are transported together on a massive ship - St. Helena. I'll get to the brains behind the sport shortly, but the ship again has a higher purpose allowing scientific specialists to research within an onboard laboratory.
The Specialists
In order to support that sustainability goal, specialists from around the world have been recruited to help. I won't go into their biographies, I'll list them here, along with their job title (source), linking to their biographies on the Extreme E websites.
- Prof. Peter Wadhams - Arctic Scientist and Head of Scientific Committee
- Francisco Oliveira - Amazon Scientist
- DR. Lucy Woodall - Ocean Scientist
- Prof. Richard Washington - Desert Scientist
- Prof. Carlos Duarte - Climate Change Scientist
This is a distinguished bunch, some of whom have had a long career and in my opinion, brings a level of integrity to the sport that can be trusted.
The Teams and Drivers
The sport has attracted some of Formula 1's greatest of all time - Carlos Sainz Senior, Michael Andretti, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and some other people I've never heard of.
There are 9 teams in total and what makes this sport even more special, is the effort to bring equality into a predominantly male sport. Every team has 2 drivers, one male and one female.
The Races
Now I'd hoped that the male and female drivers would be put up against each other, allowing us to see the gender gap (or lack thereof) but it doesn't work like that. Each event (qualifying and race) is timed over 2 laps with each driver doing a lap with a 45 second handover (like Le Mans) - The drivers can go in whichever order they choose. It's attracted some of the top female drivers as well as a few household names from Rally Car and Formula 1:
| Team | Driver 1 | Driver 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Abt Cupra | Claudia Hurtgen | Mattias Ekstrom |
| Acciona/Sainz | Laia Sanz | Carlos Sainz Sr |
| Andretti United | Catie Munnings | Timmy Hansen |
| Chip Ganassi Racing | Sara Price | Kyle Leduc |
| Hispano Suiza | Christine Giampaoli Zonca | Oliver Bennett |
| JBXE | Jenson Button | Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky |
| Rosberg X Racing | Molly Price | Johan Kristoffersson |
| Veloce Racing | Jamie Chadwick | Stephane Sarrazin |
| X44 | Cristina Gutierrez | Sebastien Loeb |
If you want to find out more about any of these drivers, the source of this list goes into a little more detail.
Race Format
The race weekend takes a little bit of inspiration from Rally Car and the rest from Formula 1.
On Saturday, there are 2 qualifying time trials. This is the rally car element where each team does 2 laps as quickly as they can (each driver doing 1 lap). This is then repeated with the drivers racing in the reverse order. Points are awarded for each time trial and then combined to give each team a total score.
On the Sunday, the real racing begins.
The top 3 teams from qualifying go through to the "semi-final" where they race against each other and the winning 2 teams qualify for the final.
The next 3 teams go through to the "crazy race", again, a race against each other with the fastest team going through.
The slowest 3 teams enter the "shoot out", which is a straight out race to see who finished 7th, 8th and 9th.
Then the final, to determining the overall race weekend champion.
Summary so Far
There's simply too much to cover without writing a thesis, so I'll share a link to Extreme E's YouTube channel and a cool video they created.
The 1st Race - AlUla (Saudi Arabia)
I'd been looking forward to watching this for weeks but was ultimately a bit disappointed with the 1st event.
The rally style qualifying element didn't really do it for me. I wanted to see racing which I had to wait until Sunday for.
The potential was there, but the race was all but over by the 1st corner. The car having the lead at this point throwing up so much sand to the cars behind that there was absolutely no visibility and no chance of catching. The one exception being when Kyle LeDuc caught up with an overly cautious Claudia Hurtgen, unable to see and smashing up both cars.
Source - racexpress YouTube channel
I expect future races to be more enjoyable without the visibility problems.
There's real potential here and I love the equality and sustainability element of the sport so will keep watching with interest. It's just a shame that the 1st race was where it was, particularly with the ethical questions surrounding Saudi Arabia as a whole. Oh, Nico Rosberg's team won.