The second season of off-road electric vehicle racing championship Extreme E comes to its final event on November 26-26th with the Uruguay Natural Energy X Prix, taking place on 26th-27th November in Punta del Este, Uruguay.
Extreme E is an FIA-sanctioned international off-road racing series that uses spec silhouette electric SUVs to race in remote parts of the world, such as the Saudi Arabian desert or the Arctic. All racing locations are chosen to raise awareness for some aspects of climate change, and Extreme E maintains a “Legacy Programme” which intends to provide social and environmental support for those locations. The series also promotes gender equality in motorsport by mandating that all teams consist of a female and a male driver who share equal driving duties.
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Extreme E began in 2018 as a project led by Formula E founder Alejandro Agag and former driver Gil de Ferran. The series was presented to the public in January 2019 with an event in London. The announcement took place on board of the ship St Helena which was to serve as “floating paddock” of the series.
The Spark Odyssey 21 electric SUV was unveiled as the series’ competition vehicle at Goodwood Festival of Speed on 5 July 2019. The vehicle is manufactured by Spark Racing Technology, the constructors of the Formula E cars, with a battery produced by Williams Advanced Engineering. The car is fitted with a niobium-reinforced steel alloy tubular frame, as well as crash structure and roll cage. It weighs 1,650 kg (3,640 lb), and is capable of 0 to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds, with 400 kW (540 hp) of power.
Champions
In 2020, the series started to attract attention by having Ken Block race the Extreme E car at the last stage of the Dakar Rally in January, and in September Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton announced the creation of his own Extreme E team, called X44. Former F1 champion and Hamilton’s longtime team-mate and rival Nico Rosberg also entered his own team into the competition with Rosberg X Racing, as did fellow champion Jenson Button with JBXE; Button also drove the 2021 Desert X-Prix for his team.
The first season began with the Desert X-Prix in Saudi Arabia in April 2021 and ended in December in the United Kingdom. Nine teams were competing over five rounds. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic the calendar had to be modified during the season with two European rounds replacing the two planned events in South America. Rosberg X Racing with drivers Molly Taylor and Johan Kristoffersson emerged as the first Extreme E champions.
The second season started in February 2022, again in Saudi Arabia. McLaren joined the series as a new team.
Before the first season in 2021, a three-part TV series had been produced to document the process of creating a brand-new racing series. The first episode premiered in June 2020 on Channel 4 in the UK, followed a few days later on Eurosport. You can find up-to-date broadcast information here.
The thrilling finale of its second season, the Uruguay Natural Energy X Prix, takes place on 26th-27th November in Punta del Este, Uruguay.
Leaders
Current leaders Rosberg X Racing (RXR) have won two out of four X Prix races this season in their bid to secure back-to-back Extreme E championships. Nico Rosberg’s team have 83 points, 17 more than nearest challengers and title rivals from 2021, X44 Vida Carbon Racing.
Lewis Hamilton’s team were victors last time out in Chile and have the momentum, where they will be bidding to go one better than their runners-up finish from Season 1.
At the Extreme E season finale Klara Andersson will start alongside Nasser Al-Attiyah for ABT CUPRA XE. The 22-year-old Swede replaces Jutta Kleinschmidt, who continues to recover from an accident at the previous race in Chile. Already at the series’ event in the Atacama Desert, Andersson had spontaneously stepped in after free practice and surprisingly clinched a trophy together with Al-Attiyah. “I think Extreme E is super cool. The championship combines motorsport with a clear message, lets men and women compete together, comes to the most spectacular places around the world,” says Klara Andersson.
Prior to the 2022 season’s opening race, Agag announced the creation of a similar off-road electric championship called Extreme H, which uses the usual Spark Odyssey 21 chassis, but the car will be powered by hydrogen. Development of the first Extreme H prototype car is underway, scheduled for a 2023 launch. The first season is expected to take place in 2024, alongside Extreme E’s fourth season.
