Extreme E

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

1. Molly Taylor/Johan Kristofferson (Rosberg X Racing)

2. Cristina Gutierrez/Sebastien Loeb (X44)

3. Catie Munnings/Timmy Hansen (Andretti United Extreme E)

4. Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky (JBXE)

=Kevin Hansen (JBXE)

5. Laia Sanz/Carlos Sainz (Acciona Sainz XE Team)

6. 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. Other changes in personnel happened for Season 2 and the championship drivers were called into action several times. There were five rounds in 2022, held in Saudi, Sardinia (two races), Chile and Uruguay. Defending champion Molly Taylor only did two rounds as a championship driver this year.

Season 2 Championship Table

1. Cristina Gutierrez/Sebastien Loeb (X44 Vida Carbon Racing)

2. Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky/Johan Kristofferson (Rosberg X Racing)

3. Laia Sanz/Carlos Sainz (Acciona Sainz XE Team)

4. Sara Price (GMC Hummer EV Chip Ganassi Racing)

5. Kyle LeDuc (GMC Hummer EV Chip Ganassi Racing)

6. Nasser Al-Attiyah (Abt Cupra XE)

7. Emma Gilmour/Tanner Foust (Mclaren XE)

8. Klara Andersson (Abt Cupra XE)

9. Catie Munnings/Timmy Hansen (Genesys Andretti United Extreme E)

10. Kevin Hansen (JBXE)

11. Tamara Molinaro (Xite Energy Racing)

12. Hedda Hosas (Veloce Racing/JBXE)

13. Timo Scheider (Xite Energy Racing)

14. Molly Taylor (Veloce Racing/JBXE)

15. Oliver Bennett (Xite Energy Racing)

16. RJ Anderson (GMC Hummer EV Chip Ganassi Racing)

17. Lance Woolridge (Veloce Racing)

18. Christine Giampaoli Zonca (Veloce Racing)

19. Jutta Kleinschmidt (Abt Cupra XE)

20. Ezequiel Perez Companc (Xite Energy Racing)

21. Fraser McConnell (JBXE)

For 2023, the Xite team was taken over by DJ and motorsport mogul Carl Cox. There were ten races spread across four locations: Saudi, Scotland, Sardinia and Chile. The two female championship drivers were Tamara Molinaro and Christine GZ, who stepped back from a full-time drive. Both got to make starts. McLaren driver Emma Gilmour was unfortunately injured in a crash in Scotland and had to pull out. She will not return in 2024.

Season 3 Championship Table

1. Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky/Johan Kristofferson (Rosberg X Racing)

2. Laia Sanz/Mattias Ekstrom (Acciona Sainz XE Team)

3. Molly Taylor/Kevin Hansen (Veloce Racing)

4. Cristina Gutierrez/Fraser McConnell (X44 Vida Carbon Racing)

5. Amanda Sorensen/RJ Anderson (GMC Hummer EV Chip Ganassi Racing)

6. Klara Anderson (Abt Cupra XE)

7. Catie Munnings/Timmy Hansen (Andretti Attawkilat Extreme E)

8. Tanner Foust (Mclaren XE)

9. Hedda Hosas (JBXE/McLaren)

10. Sebastien Loeb (Abt Cupra XE)

11. Timo Scheider (Carl Cox Motorsport)

12. Andreas Bakkerud (JBXE)

13. Emma Gilmour (Mclaren XE)

14. Lia Block (Carl Cox Motorsport)

15. Christine GZ (Carl Cox Motorsport)

16. Nasser al-Attiyah (Abt Cupra XE)

17. Tamara Molinaro (JBXE)

18. Adrien Tambay (Abt Cupra XE)

19. Heikki Kovalainen (JBXE)

Season 4 was the last season of Extreme E, which will be renamed Extreme H in 2025 and use hydrogen-powered cars. The championship was reduced to four rounds.

Season 4 Championship Table

1. Molly Taylor/Kevin Hansen (Veloce Racing)

2. Laia Sanz/Fraser McConnell (Acciona Sainz XE Team)

3. Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky/Johan Kristofferson (Rosberg X Racing)

4. Catie Munnings/Timmy Hansen (Andretti Attawkilat Extreme E)

5. Cristina Gutierrez/Mattias Ekstrom (NEOM McLaren Extreme E)

6. Gray Leadbetter (Legacy Motor Club)

7. Klara Andersson/Timo Scheider (Sun Minimeal Team)

8. Patrick O'Donovan (Legacy Motor Club)

9. Andreas Bakkerud (JBXE)

10. Travis Pastrana (Legacy Motor Club)

11. Amanda Sorenson (JBXE)

12. Dania Akeel (JBXE)

(Image copyright Zak Mauger/Extreme E)

 

Laia Sanz

 

Laia with Carlos Sainz

Laia Sanz races in Extreme E for Carlos Sainz's team, sharing an electric Odyssey 4x4.

The Spanish racer, whose full name is Eulalia Sanz Pla-Giribert, is better-known as a motorcycle endurance rider who has won 14 ladies' European trials championships and ridden in the Dakar ten times on a motorbike. She has finished every Dakar she has entered, between 2011 and 2020, with a women’s award each time. Her best overall finish has been ninth in 2015.  

She had been competing in trials aged seven, in 1992. Her first win was in 1997 and she won her first women’s title in 1998, still aged only twelve.

Her four-wheel career began at around the same time as her Dakar debut. Interestingly, she did not opt for off-road competition.

She entered a couple of Clio Cup races in Spain in 2011 and won class A2 of the 2011 Barcelona 24 Hours, driving a Renault Clio. She was 18th overall, assisted by Enric and Jordi Codony, Francesc Gutierrez and Santi Navarro. 

In 2014, she did some ice racing in Andorra, in the G Series, and competed directly against Ingrid Rossell in a match race. She also did two rounds of the SEAT Leon Supercopa, in Catalunya, and was 19th and 20th. 

In 2015, she returned to enduros, and was ninth in the Dakar on a KTM. She did do some four-wheeled outings in a SEAT Leon, including two races in the Supercopa and the Catalunya 24 Hours, at Barcelona. She was 16th overall and second in class, as part of a two-driver team. 

At the end of the season, she was signed by the works KTM team, and concentrated on motorcycles for a season. 

She did another car race in 2017, finishing 15th in the TCR 24H race at Catalunya. Her car was a SEAT Leon. 

She entered the same race in 2018, driving a SEAT Cupra for the Monlau team. She and her team-mates won their class. 

Her first start in Extreme E came after a long recovery period for wrist injuries sustained in the 2020 Dakar where she was riding for the works Gas Gas team. Her warm-up was a run in a Can-Am SxS vehicle at the Baja Dubai. She was fourth in the UTV class.

Carlos Sainz himself had requested that she join the Acciona Sainz XE team. Each Extreme E must have a male and a female driver and Laia was the first choice for the Spanish team’s female seat.

The first Extreme E race was held in Saudi Arabia and the second event in Senegal and this was her first time visiting the country, as the Dakar had stopped visiting Dakar itself by the time she made her debut. She and Carlos Sainz were ninth in Senegal, having finished fourth in Saudi.

Despite saying that she would carry on with motorcycles when her seat in Extreme E was announced, she decided to commit to four wheels during 2021, including her first run in the Dakar in a car for 2022.

Her first E-Prix in Saudi was a relative success and she and Carlos qualified second, although they were dropped to fourth in the final by mechanical problems. The pair tended to qualify well but come up against issues in finals and their best finish was third in Greenland. They were fifth in the championship.

The second season of Extreme E featured an unchanged Acciona Sainz driver pairing. They were third overall, with two second places in the Saudi desert round and the Chile race. Both drivers usually qualified well, but did quite not have the pace for the final.

Her Dakar adventure ended in a solid 23rd place in the Car class, driving a Mini All4 with Maurizio Gerini. The car was run by the X-Raid team.

Laia's third season in Extreme E featured a new team-mate in Mattias Ekstrom. The pair won two races in Saudi and Sardinia from pole, on their way to second in the championship. They were also second four times. They were also the fastest qualifiers for the second Chile race, but were beaten by the Veloce team, who won the championship.

She entered the Dakar again in 2024, driving an Astara T1.2 prototype. Her co-driver was the Italian Maurizio Gerini. They were 15th in the Car class.

Back in Extreme E, Laia partnered Jamaican driver Fraser McConnell. They won the second Desert E-Prix and were second in both Hydro races, finishing second overall in the final Extreme E championship.

The same pairing as 2024 entered the 2025 Dakar, driving for the Century Racing Factory Team, but they had to retire on the second stage.

(Image from enduro21.com)