Extreme E is an off-road, rallycross-style championship for Odyssey electric SUVs. Teams of one male and one female driver share a car and complete one lap of the course each during a race.
The series tries to highlight environmental issues by visiting remote locations affected by climate change and pollution. In the first season, this included the Greenland ice sheet, Lac Rose in Senegal and the AlUla desert region of Saudi Arabia. It was developed by Alejandro Agag, CEO of Formula E. The inspiration for mixed teams came from Agag’s love of tennis, where mixed doubles is still played.
The inaugural season ran for five rounds, although the locations changed from those originally planned, due to difficulties caused by the coronavirus crisis. It began in Saudi and passed through Senegal, Greenland, Sardinia and Dorset, UK. All of the Odyssey cars, team equipment, charging bases and some of the personnel moved between sites on the RMS St Helena, a refitted mail ship. Spectators and extraneous media personnel were not allowed, to reduce the footprint of each XPrix.
As team size was kept minimal, the series provided two “championship drivers”, Timo Scheider and Jutta Kleinschmidt, who were able to substitute for anyone unable to compete at short notice. Jutta Kleinschmidt was called into action after Claudia Hurtgen’s roll in Saudi and took the female Cupra seat for the rest of the season. Tamara Molinaro was drafted in as championship driver. Some teams, such as Veloce, had their own reserve drivers for planned absences. Jenson Button, owner of JBXE, pulled out after the first round to concentrate on management and was replaced by Kevin Hansen, competing alongside his brother Kevin.
Molly Taylor and Johan Kristofferson were the first winners, driving for Nico Rosberg’s Rosberg X Racing, ahead of Cristina Gutierrez Herrero and Sebastien Loeb in X44’s Odyssey. The X44 team is owned by Lewis Hamilton.
Season 1 Championship Table
Molly Taylor/Johan Kristofferson (Rosberg X Racing)
Cristina Gutierrez/Sebastien Loeb (X44)
Catie Munnings/Timmy Hansen (Andretti United Extreme E)
Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky (JBXE)
=Kevin Hansen (JBXE)
Laia Sanz/Carlos Sainz (Acciona Sainz XE Team)
Mattias Ekstrom (Abt Cupra)
=Jutta Kleinschmidt (Abt Cupra)
7. Sara Price (Segi TV Chip Ganassi)
=Stephane Sarrazin (Veloce)
8. Kyle LeDuc (Segi TV Chip Ganassi)
9. Christine Giampaoli Zonca/Oliver Bennett (Xite Energy Hispano Suiza)
10. Jamie Chadwick (Veloce)
11. Emma Gilmour (Veloce)
12. Jenson Button (JBXE)
=Lance Woolridge (Veloce)
13. Claudia Hurtgen (Abt Cupra)
A new team, McLaren, joined for the 2022 championship. Its drivers are Emma Gilmour, who sat in for Jamie Chadwick at Veloce when she was on W Series duty, and Tanner Foust.
(Image copyright Zak Mauger/Extreme E)