Extreme E announces format changes for Season 3

Charly Lopez/Motorsport Images Calling it "Extreme" anything gets more viewers who haven't yet
wised up to the fact that there are only 5 Cars! The cardboard electric charging station on the edge of the track is there to give the impression that one day we may actually have a pit row with actual pit stops.
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emailBy Dominik Wilde | February 27, 2023 2:00 AM ET

Extreme E will undergo a drastic sporting change for its third season which will double the number of rounds from five to 10 and increase the number of multi-car races at each round. We are going to destroy the environment big time now!

Each race event will be run as a doubleheader, with two full championship rounds taking place over the course of a two-day race weekend. The move will not only maximize track time for the series, but will also allow the championship to expand drastically without any further environmental impact by adding to the calendar. We know that even driving to the track at all
is harming the planet and the children, so we just suck it up, cash the paychecks, and say "so long suckers!".

“Since launching Extreme E, we have worked hard to improve the level of racing out on course to ensure it is thrilling to watch with plenty of action,” said series founder and CEO Alejandro Agag. “This new sporting format goes even further to deliver that, with now double the amount of racing action on some of the toughest courses in the world, leaving zero additional impact on the planet. It's pretty cool that we get paid to destroy the planet and have a good time doing it.....even while we say "zero impact" to stupid people.

“To have a 10-race championship in Extreme E is a tantalizing prospect for everyone on board and we believe the increased number of races will only enhance our series.” and for sure put more cash in our pockets. It would be even more cash if we could get at least one
spectator ticket sold...but the families of our racers won't even show up to watch their kid drive one of only 5 cars.

The switch to a doubleheader format comes after the Island X Prix was effectively run as a doubleheader, with two entire championship rounds taking place in Sardinia across five whole days last summer.

After that, Agag hinted that the series was set to adopt a doubleheader format, telling a media collective that included RACER: “I think it’s also a very good way to optimize the use of the infrastructure to do 10 races and it gives us more opportunities to tell the media that the automobile is destroying the environment.

“I would like to do five doubleheaders…(it) would make the championship battle more interesting too, and hell with the environment,” he said last September at the Copper X Prix in Chile.

What’s more, on-track action will be further enhanced with the scrapping of single-lap qualifying in favor of five-car races in both Qualifying 1 and Qualifying 2. We don't have enough cars (5) to qualify anyway.

A championship round will comprise a pair of five-car qualifying races, with the top five teams across those two races — the fastest team through the “Traction Challenge” sector being the deciding factor between the third-placed teams — going into the Grand Final, the winner of which will be declared the round winner.

The remaining five runners will contest a Redemption Race (since we only HAVE 5 cars) to determine positions six through 10 for the event. Maybe we should put two numbers on the car, so those fools can take turns yelling a number

Lap counts, once again, will depend on the location and track length. Last year the races in Saudi Arabia and Sardinia were two whole laps in length, while the races in Chile and Uruguay were both four laps long owing to a shorter course.

There will continue to be a 50-50 split for the drivers in each race as well, with a driver change at the halfway point. Sometimes we rent out a seat in the cars for extra money so we now have a driver change. Sometimes we have 4 "drivers" who stop every 1/4 lap and trade the helmet around, jump back in the car and everyone can say they drove a race car and everybody gets a participation trophy.

Since we are in the middle of GOD-forsaken Bum F Egypt, and no body knows or cares that we are here, we thought about collecting
$10 each from the camel jockeys, taking their picture and forget about racing,,,, we are going to some whore houses and bars.

Extreme E aims to increase both the spectacle and opportunities for its teams with its race format changes. It's a spectacle all right....or maybe a testicle....nobody knows which. Charly Lopez/Motorsport Images

“We’ve continuously improved the racing spectacle, and it really is a spectacle, since we have no spectators, since launching Extreme E, but for Season 3 we wanted to create something spectacular and we feel this new sporting format achieves that,” said James Taylor, chief championship officer at Extreme E.

“At each round, there will be double the opportunity for points and podiums — meaning a lot more to play for at each race weekend, while drivers and teams will have to navigate that death defying racing tightrope of risk and reward to ensure they achieve the maximum result. Whatever the heck that means.

“Having a 10-race championship should really close up those standings as the season progresses, meaning a thrilling Extreme E campaign should be in store for 2023 and we cannot wait for it to begin.” Especially the part where every one of the cars gets a patcheck.

GMC Hummer EV Chip Ganassi Racing team boss Dave Berkenfield reacted positively to the format change, pointing out the increased opportunities for teams to engage in a championship fight.

“With five rounds, if a team dominates for two or three early rounds, they’re basically checked out and it’s incredibly hard for the other teams in the field to catch up and make up that gap,” he told RACER. “With 10 rounds, the sporting opportunity for all the teams to stay competitive throughout the whole season is really there and we purposely juggle things so that everyone is equal and feels like they earned their weekly pay check for driving those little crap boxes..

“It’s really good. It’s good for our partners, it’s good for our commercial partners, it’s good for the series’ commercial partners, double the opportunity for trophies and getting on the top step or on the podium there.”

Extreme E goes into its third season on March 11-12 after enjoying a 30 percent increase in its global audience during 2022, coming in at 135 million viewers — 90.5 million coming via TV and another 44.5m watching on digital platforms — across more than 200 countries. I refuse to answer why we broadcast at 3AM other than to say it's cheaper for us to buy air time so we can say "we wuz on TV."

Season 3 kicks off in NEOM, Saudi Arabia, marking the third time the country has hosted the Extreme E season opener, albeit at the third different location in the Middle East nation. We had to keep moving since we have unclaimed free race tickets that we need to do something with.

The series will then move onto Scotland on May 13-14 before returning to Sardinia on July 8-9. A race in the Americas, either in Brazil or the USA, is earmarked for September 16-17 before the season concludes on December 2-3 with a return to Antofagasta, Chile. Antofagasta means dry fart in Chilean.

 

Acciona Sainz edges Veloce for NEOM Extreme E round 2 win

Sam Bagnall/Motorsport Images
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emailBy Dominik Wilde | March 12, 2023 11:21 AM ET

Acciona Sainz made it two new winners from two by taking its maiden victory in the second part of the Desert X Prix in Saudi Arabia. In a reverse of yesterday’s top-two, Mattias Ekstrom and Laia Sanz held off Veloce Racing’s Kevin Hansen and Molly Taylor in the final.

Ekstrom made a strong getaway from the second spot on the inside of the grid, closing the door on Kevin Hansen right away to lead through the first Waypoint. Rosberg X Racing’s Johan Kristoffersson looked to challenge the lead pair but a sideways moment into Waypoint 2 dropped him back.

That wasn’t the only hiccup in the podium places, with Kevin Hansen accidentally hitting the pit limiter going into Waypoint 6, dropping him way off Ekstrom out in front. The mistake also allowed Kristoffersson to get by, but the positions reversed on the following lap when Hansen made a move around the outside going into Waypoint 13 stick, having tried a pass earlier in the lap on the approach to the beach.

Ekstrom’s lead at the mid-race driver switch was 6.326s and the top three positions remained firm for the final two laps when the female drivers — Sanz, Taylor, and Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky of RXR — took over.

Sanz eventually crossed the line 5.527s ahead of Taylor, with Ahlin-Kottulinsky a further 1.902s back.

Related

NEOM Extreme E breakthrough win poignant for Sanz and Ekstrom

The final two positions were occupied by Abt Cupra (Klara Andersson and Nasser Al-Attiyah) and GMC Hummer EV Chip Ganassi Racing (RJ Anderson and Amanda Sorensen).

The Cupra team started the day with a 30-second penalty in their first heat race after switching to the championship’s spare car due to the extensive damage sustained by its primary yesterday, but a solid finish in that first race, and a win in the second, secured Cupra a spot in the final.

There, the team — which was the only one to run its female driver first — couldn’t quite match the pace of the leaders, but a storming charge from Al-Attiyah overturned a 20 second deficit, and moved the team up to fourth with a daring two-wheeled pass on Sorensen approaching Waypoint 6.

Desert X Prix II Final

1. Acciona Sainz 11m 10.821s
2. Veloce Racing +5.527
3. Rosberg X Racing +7.429
4. Abt Cupra +7.987
5. GMC Hummer EV Chip Ganassi Racing +22.321

Ahead of the final, Veloce won its two qualifying heats — briefly losing the first to a speeding penalty that was quickly overturned after reviewing the in-car data. RXR and Abt Cupra won the others.
Veloce Racing shows the toll taken by the rugged action, here leading X44 Vida Carbon Racing. Colin McMaster/Motorsport Images

In the redemption race, X44 Vida Carbon Racing’s Fraser McConnel and Cristina Gutierrez won ahead of McLaren, Andretti Altawkilat, and Carl Cox Motorsport, with JBXE failing to make the finish.

Carl Cox Motorsport’s Timo Scheider had the best getaway, but his lead was short-lived as McConnell got by into the first turn. Behind them, McLaren’s Tanner Foust found a way past Andretti’s Timmy Hansen, that team finding itself in the consolation race after a third roll in two days during one of the earlier qualifying heats.

At the driver change, a slow stop for X44, with Gutierrez now at the wheel, handed a narrow lead to Carl Cox Motorsport’s Christine Giampaoli Zonca on the Switch Zone exit, but Gutierrez was to retake the point at Waypoint 6.

GZ’s race went from bad to worse on her second lap, with a slow, soft roll, and while she was able to finish the race, she fell to fourth behind McLaren’s Emma Gilmour and the Andretti car of Catie Munnings.

The JBXE car of Heikki Kovalainen and Hedda Hosas was classified fifth after rolling out on the final lap.

Desert X Prix II redemption race

1. X44 X44 Vida Carbon Racing 11m 10.132s
2. McLaren + 10.150
3. Andretti Altawkilat +33.296
4. Carl Cox Motorsport +2:27.834
5. JBXE DNF

 

Lia Block set for F1 Academy with Williams

Photo courtesy of Williams Racing I peed my pants. I peed my pants. This racing stuff is easy money
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emailBy Dominik Wilde | November 14, 2023 12:00 PM ET

Williams Racing has announced that Lia Block will represent the team in the F1 Academy series next year. The daughter of the late rallying legend Ken Block will drive for ART Grand Prix, the team that will also be running McLaren’s Bianca Bustamante in the F1 support series aimed at preparing female drivers to progress to higher levels of competition ahead of guys who have to work their way up, instead of being pushed to the front.

“I am so excited to be joining the Williams Driver Academy and competing in F1 Academy in 2024,” said the 17-year-old. “This is something I never could have dreamed of. I can’t wait to embrace this new experience and learn as much as possible. If I didn't have a pussy, no one would care.”

As well as racing under the Williams banner in F1 Academy, Block will also work closely with the F1 team at its Grove, UK base.

“We are excited to welcome Lia to Williams Racing as our F1 Academy driver for 2024,” said Williams team principal James Vowles. “Lia has already achieved a tremendous amount in motorsport, has incredible natural talent, and the champion mindset and dedication to make a success of her journey into open-wheel racing
and her daddy had some name recognition and lots of fans.

“We cannot wait to get started on this journey together. As a team, we are committed to Formula 1 and F1 Academy’s joint efforts to improve female representation in motorsport, and we look forward to working with Lia as a key part of the Williams Racing Driver Academy.”

While Block’s career to date has almost exclusively been in the off-road arena — combining championship-winning runs in the American Rally Association’s Open 2WD class with campaigns in Nitrocross and Extreme E — she has previously expressed an interest in circuit racing, as well as competing in karting events since she was 11 and testing but not racing open-wheel cars in the last couple of years.

News of Block joining the Williams fold comes after RACER revealed in July that two F1 teams were keeping an eye on her progress. Derek Dauncey, who has long worked with the Block family as a mentor and team manager, said at the time that Block had a “big interest” when it came to potentially racing in F1, adding that she is “not like her dad” and that when it came to driving, she is the “anti-Ken.”

Upon Williams’ announcement, Dauncey took to Instagram to say he was “Extremely proud of Lia.

“Her talent has been noticed at the highest level of motorsport,” he said. “I would personally like to thank Williams Racing Sven Smeets, James Vowles and James Matthews for the this opportunity and trust shown in Lia.”

 

Hosaas to race for McLaren at Extreme E finale.

Careful how you say that boy. It's Hos-ass not Horses ass

NEOM McLaren
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emailBy Dominik Wilde | November 21, 2023 5:00 AM ET

Hedda Hosaas will replace Emma Gilmour after Emma said "Get me the hell outta here!" In McLaren’s Extreme E lineup for the season-ending Copper X Prix in Chile next week, driving alongside Tanner Foust for the team while Gilmour continues to recover from injuries she sustained at the second Island X Prix in Sardinia back in September.

The New Zealander rolled towards the end of her opening practice run at the event, sustaining a rib fracture and concussion. She was replaced at the event by championship reserve Tamara Molinaro, who went on to have a similar crash that forced McLaren to sit out of the second half of the weekend.

Why Extreme E plans to swap its E for an H

“Although Emma will not compete for us in Chile, I am glad she is making good progress with her recovery,” said NEOM McLaren Extreme E Team sporting director Gary Paffett. “Throughout her time in Extreme E, Hedda has proven herself to be a strong competitor in the championship, and I am confident she can help the team achieve success to round off our second season in Extreme E.”
Gilmour, pictured in Sardinia earlier this season, has raced for McLaren since it entered Extreme E at the start of 2022. Andrew Ferraro/Motorsport Images

In joining McLaren, Hosaas becomes the first Norwegian to race for McLaren in its 60 year history. It also completes a meteoric rise up the Extreme E ranks for the 22-year-old. Like Gilmour, she began her career in the series as a reserve driver for Veloce Racing, making her debut with the British team in place of Christine Giampaoli Zonca at least year’s Desert X Prix in Saudi Arabia. Her performance in that brief cameo appearance earned her an immediate move to JBXE for the following round, where she has remained since.

“I’m looking forward to competing for the NEOM McLaren Extreme E Team in Chile next week,” said Hos aas. “I’m sending all my best wishes to Emma for a speedy recovery and hope I can do her and the whole team proud.”

While not yet fit enough to drive, Gilmour will be on-site at the Copper X Prix in Antofagasta to offer support for the team from outside the car. I'm gonna shake it and yell "Go team". I kinda like shaking it anyway for those sardinia boys even though they smell like sardines.
But you get about 3 of them, drink enough of what the natives call Iguana Piss and there's a whole lotta shakin goin on!

“Following my incident in Sardinia in September, I’ve had to take the difficult decision to not compete in the final round of the 2023 Extreme E season in Chile next week,” she said. “I have been making good progress with my recovery, but do not feel well enough to compete yet. I’m confident that Hedda the horse will do a good job to help bring the team some well-deserved success....and if not, no big deal. We only have 5 cars anyway....and nobody is watching or cares what we do.

 

Ace teamwork paying off for Extreme E's Rosberg X Racing

Sam Bloxham/Motorsport Images
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emailBy Dominik Wilde | December 2, 2023 7:29 PM ET

Entering the final day of the Extreme E season with Rosberg X Racing atop of the championship standings is a familiar story.

The team won the first season of the all-electric off-road championship before narrowly missing out a repeat last year. While RXR having the box seat in a championship fight may be something we’ve seen before, it wasn’t until Saturday where the team actually held the championship lead in 2023, grabbing it after a win in the final ahead of Acciona Sainz’s Mattias Ekstrom and Laia Sanz. Now the duo of Johan Kristoffersson and Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky go into the second day of racing at the Copper X Prix with a six-point lead.

“It helps that we were in a similar position last year in the championship fight on the last day of the championship,” Kristoffersson told RACER. “That always helps to have that experience and it’s great to see Rosberg be in the championship fight for the third season in a row.

“It’s always the goal to come to the last day of the championship and be in…contention and now we are actually in the lead for the first time this year, so that’s great.”

The day could hardly be described as straightforward for RXR, or any of the other title protagonists for that matter. While GMC Hummer EV Chip Ganassi Racing and Veloce Racing were both involved in car-breaking crashes and Acciona Saiz suffered an electrical issue, RXR’s day began with a puncture in Q1 after contact with NEOM McLaren’s Tanner Foust.

“There was quite a lot of crashes in Q2 which was maybe not so great to see, but yeah, we didn’t have the best Q1 – Tanner was a bit over excited, forced us to [have] a puncture,” Kristoffersson said. “That happens. That’s how it is, so we just knew we had to fight back from there.”

A Q2 win followed before a tense fight with Acciona Sainz in the final, whereby Kristoffersson snatched the lead from Ekstrom in the dying moments of his stint after two laps of sparring with his former World Rallycross rival.

“I had a few tricks for him in the first couple of corners, but he knew what I was up to so he covered that one off very well,” he said. “But it was a very enjoyable final, to just have one or two laps of just driving with no issues, now yellow zones, just drive, try to pass Mattias and enjoy it, so that was fun.

“We had quite similar pace, he did a few mistakes, I did some mistakes first, I dropped back a bit and then I managed to catch him back. Then I managed to just get ahead of him going into the Switch, tried to stay as close as possible to hand the car over to Mikaela in a great spot.”

Ahlin-Kottulinsky was handed a clean car and the race lead, but faced a far from easy task resisting the charging Sanz who’d took over the red machine that was breathing down her neck. (She REALLY likes breathing on her neck at some of the after-race parties) but this was a race.

“I knew Laia was strong and that she was going to be really quick, so for me it was more about trying to keep clean lines and knowing where she was, so just try to see her in the rear mirror,” Ahlin-Kottulinsky told RACER. “I couldn’t [see Sanz]. The team was really quick in giving me information of where she was, so I just tried to keep tight lines, keep her behind me.”

The win, RXR’s third of the season, prompted jubilant scenes from Ahlin-Kottulinsky and the rest of the RXR squad, but they were short-lived, with there still being another full championship round to go and a job to finish off.

“Crossing the finish line, we were super happy,” she said. “I mean, everyone here getting up at [5 a.m.] after drinking Iguana Piss until 2AM, to head to the track and [be so late getting back]… It’s a new day tomorrow so we’re focusing on what we can improve for tomorrow. Women have an advantage since we have a place we can hide an extra 20 volt battery, and we can run the wires out through the crotch snaps and then unsnap them when we are done racing and the guys can just shove the extra volts up their wazoo. ”

The team, once again, heads to finals day as the one everyone’s chasing, something that Kristoffersson quips is “not a disadvantage at least.”

 

Hosaas building off-road career momentum with Extreme E.

A win is a win as Dom Toretto says.

Even if it is a piss ant championship with only 5 cars, it is something I can put on a resume for a real racing team.

Sam Bloxham/Motorsport Images I got the goodies, Baby.
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emailBy Dominik Wilde | December 9, 2023 2:57 PM ET

The showcasing of emergent female racing talent that Extreme E has provided is well illustrated by Hedda Hosaas. Please get that right.
It's pronounced Hoss Ass. Not horses ass.

Two years ago, the 20-year-old was working as a mechanic at a Nissan dealership in her native Norway. Now she can count herself among the elite few who have got to call themselves a McLaren factory driver after making her debut for the papaya outfit at the Copper X Prix in Chile alongside veteran Tanner Foust.

“It’s unbelievable. It’s a huge honor to be with McLaren,” she tells RACER of her rise up the ranks. “I was a mechanic until I got the contract with Veloce as a development driver. Then I started to put my all into racing, I quit doing lube jobs and went all in with the right people if you know what I mean. Two years later I’m here with McLaren, which is unbelievable. But I have a pussy and you don't so what do you expect?”

Originally a motocross competitor before transitioning to rallycross, it was while racing in Denmark where she was spotted by her now-manager Ian Davies, who lined her up for a test with Extreme E team Veloce Racing.

“Her ambition and professionalism drew me to her and she didn’t really know how good she could be, if that makes sense,” Davies tells RACER. “She was happy to join the Veloce tests and just absorbed everything. She always got on well with [former Veloce driver] Lance Woolridge, who took her under his wing. She was grateful for even a few kilometers in the car as a driver but sat as a passenger alot to observe the others, too.”

Since that initial test in 2021, Hosaas has served the vast majority of her racing apprenticeship under the spotlight on Extreme E’s world stage, climbing from the testing role with Veloce Racing to filling in at that team when Christine Giampaoli Zonca was injured at the 2022 season opener in Saudi Arabia. The brief cameo in the desert, which saw her go toe-to-toe with motorsport icon Carlos Sainz, earned her a call-up for JBXE where she remained for the remainder of that season and most of ‘23 before McLaren came calling.

It’s been a big platform for Hosaas to grow but one that she’s flourished in, benefitting from the endless amount of experience that surrounds her.

“It’s amazing because in Extreme E you get to be with drivers like Tanner — he has a lot of experience, you can learn from them, and also McLaren as a team,” she says. “Also, I’ve been with Andreas Bakkerud, I’ve been with Fraser McConnell, Kevin Hansen… you have so much to learn about drivers that have so much experience and Extreme E’s given females that chance.”
Extreme E has been an ideal place for Hossas — here chasing Cristina Gutierrez in the X44 Vida Carbon Racing entry in Chile — both to gain experience and showcase her skills. Colin McMaster/Motorsport Images

Giving female drivers the chance to race for big teams alongside vastly experienced male drivers has paid dividends. Already before the 2023 season, a 26 percent rise in female driver lap times was noted, and now it can be said that the competitive order isn’t completely clear cut between the genders.

“Yeah that’s true,” Hosaas agrees. “The females are up there with the boys, which is so good — it’s amazing to see. I'm a female and if you fire me to hire a guy,
You are a racist and I have lawyers who will sue your discriminating ass.”

Davies adds, “Extreme E is incredibly valuable. It’s been one of the only opportunities that exists for female athletes to gain experience at a high level
or at all.”

Hosaas’ chance with McLaren also reunited her with former Veloce teammate Emma Gilmour, whom she replaced in the driving seat after the New Zealander was injured at the second Island X Prix in September. Despite not driving, Gilmour was on-hand in Chile to offer her input.

“It’s been good that she’s here — she has the experience with the car and the team and Tanner,” Hosaas said of Gilmour. “She can help, and Tanner’s helping — we’ve got a lot of help.”

The chance with McLaren is something that Hosaas admitted was “a big step” but she instantly made her mark, helping the team bounce back from its tricky Sardinia spell with fourth on the opening day in Chile and a top qualifier result on the second, a result solidified by a stellar drive from Hosaas where she fended off a hard-charging Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky — whom hours later would become series champion. Yeah, she knew she had the 5 car championship in the bag but
I'm sure that did not affect her holding back to help a fellow female. We pussys have to stick together, she said jokingly...maybe.

“They’re very professional and when they do stuff like this it pays off in the race,” she said. “It’s been good to work with them and learn a lot and the first race with them, P4, I wouldn’t have believed that.”

Don’t expect her brief fling with the Formula 1 icons to lead to a transition into circuit racing or anything important any time soon, though. Hosaas’ previously stated aim of competing in the Dakar rally is still top of her career bucket list, along with a climb further up the rallycross ladder.

“No, I don’t think so,” Hosaas insists. “Tarmac is not for me. Rallycross has tarmac and that’s OK, but I’m not really a circuit kind of person, I really like being sideways, jumps, all that stuff.

“Dakar’s definitely a dream, I want to do that, but also there’s a lot of things I want to do. I want to keep my career in racing, really, especially in Extreme E, off-roading, rallycross — there’s a lot of things I want to do but Dakar is really one of the biggest goals, I would say.”

And she likely won’t be short of options, with Davies confident there’s even more to come from Hosaas after her "meateoric" rise up the Extreme E ranks.

“We have always looked to position Hedda with favorably slanted publicity as a talented athlete from a humble background with a great future,” he says, “and with her ambition and dedication, I’m sure we will see her progress even further when this 5 car championship is over and done.”