400 replies to this topic

[Ben1445]

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The Adventure Begins... 
 
Officially announced a little over two years ago at an event in London, Extreme E is about to become a reality.
 
And it’s pulled in some serious names from the world of motorsport to back up their serious ambition. 
 
What serious names you ask? Well… Lewis Hamilton has a team and he’s hired Sebastien Loeb to drove for him. Nico Rosberg has done the same and he’s hired WRX champion Johan Kristofferson. Carlos Sainz (Sr) and Jenson Button will both drive in teams of their own. Chip Ganassi and Andretti United both have teams of their own. And that’s only to name a few… 
 
The idea is reasonably simple. It’s electric off-road racing in some of the most extreme and remote areas in the world - areas damaged by climate change. Teams are comprised of one male and one female driver who share duties equally. The entire race day infrastructure and transportation network has been designed to have minimum impact on the environment. They transport all their freight on a former Royal Mail Ship, the St Helena, and the tracks are marked out with flag gates. Cars are charged up by green hydrogen fuel cell generators. Extreme E also hosts climate research programmes and carries out legacy programs to help combat the effects of climate change.

 
Who will be racing? 
 
 
 
Veloce Racing (UK) | No.5. | Jamie Chadwick and Stéphane Sarrazin 
Making their transition from sim racing team to real world racing team and with involvement from Adrian Newey, Veloce have hired W Series champion Jamie Chadwick and rally/sportscar veteran Stephane Sarrazin
 
Rosberg X Racing | No.6 | Molly Taylor and Johan Kristofferson 
An extension of the Rosberg DTM team headed up by Nico Rosberg, who handpicked his driving team  of World Rallycross champion Kristofferson and 2016 Australian Rally Champion Molly Taylor 
 
JBXE | No. 22 | Jenson Button and Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky 
A late entry, Jenson Button has formed his own team to race with. He’s hired GT3/STCC driver and XE tyre development driver Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky to be his teammate 
 
Andretti United Extreme E | No. 23 | Catie Munnings and Timmy Hansen 
A collaboration between Andretti Autosport and Zak Brown’s United Autosport, rally driver Catie Munnings will pair up with Word Rallycross driver Timmy Hansen. 
 
Hispano-Suiza Xite Energy | No.42 | Oliver Bennet and Christine Giampaoli Zonca 
An age old automobile brand name returns… World Rallycross driver Oliver Bennet and rally driver Christine Giampaoli Zonca will take the wheel 
 
Team X44 | No. 44 | Sebastien Loeb and Christina Gutierrez 
Lewis Hamilton’s team has pulled no punches with his driver signings. Nine-time World Rally Champion and Dakar Rally podium finisher Sebastien Loeb will be paired with Dakar Rally stage winner Christina Gutierrez. 
 
Acciona Sainz XE Team | No. 55 | Carlos Sainz and Laia Sanz
Two-time World Rally Champion Carlos Sainz will race for his own team, being joined by off road bike racer Laia Sanz 
 
Chip Ganassi Racing | No.95 | Sara Price and Kyle LeDuc 
Chip Ganassi has hired drivers with Baja off-roading experience in Sara Price and Kyle LeDuc
 
ABT Cupra XE | No. 125 | Mattias Ekström and Claudia Hürtgen 
The long-running association between ABT and Ekström continues in Extreme E, joined by GT and touring veteran Claudia Hürtgen 
 
Where are they racing? 
There will be five events through the year facing Desert, Ocean, Arctic, Rainforest and Glacial conditions: 
 

 
Desert X-Prix | AlUla, Saudi Arabia | 3-4 April 
Ocean X-Prix | Lac Rose, Senegal | 29-30 May 
Arctic X-Prix | Kangerlussuaq, Greenland | 28-29 August 
Amazon X-Prix | Santarém, Brazil | 23-24 October
Glacier X-Prix | Ushuaia, Argentina | 11-12 December 
 
What's the track for this week looking like? 

 
What’s the race format? 
It’s following a general round robin format with qualifiers, semi-finals and finals. Drivers from each team will each complete one lap before handing over to their teammate to complete the second lap. 
 
Where can I watch it? 
For Extreme E’s  summary of the event timings and broadcast options click HERE
 
The first event timetable is as follows (times in GMT): 
 
Saturday 3rd April 
Qualifying Round 1 - 06:00 - 07:30
Qualifying Round 2 - 11:00 - 12:30
 
Sunday 4th April 
Semi Final and Crazy Race - 06:00 - 07:30
Race Programme - 10:00 - 12:00  
 
What can I expect? 
….. I actually have no idea!  I guess we shall find out.
 

Edited by Ben1445, 02 April 2021 - 18:56.

[Ben1445]

Here's the thread containing all of the news and discussion from the earliest rumours of this series up to today: 

https://forums.autos...-road-spin-off/

 

And here's the livestream of the shakedown session from earlier today: 

[jonpollak]

Nice one Ben.
I’m kinda curious but as it’s Round 1 Season 1 I won’t be too judgmental.

Jp

[thegamer23]

Extreme OP      

 

I'm really looking forward to this whole thing.

Really a new chapter in Motorsport and curious to see how it will look tomorrow & on sunday as the things gets serious.

 

The track looks stunning, with some huge elevation drops. 

 

 

 

It's definetely a challenge, and Chip Ganassi already starts on the backfoot!

Kyle Leduc shunted his car into a rock, big damage & a lot of work to do overnight.

 

The crash: https://twitter.com/...1153958913?s=20

 

 

 

And bit of a VLOG from Oliver Bennet, driver of the HispanoSuiza Team

 

Edited by thegamer23, 02 April 2021 - 19:39.

[cheekybru]

Just watched the two preview episodes on Sky 👍 well up for it, love the 50% women/man thing, and the fact they have a "legacy" team at each venue devoted to fighting environmental issues in the area

Look forward to supporting X44 Vs Team Rosberg

Edited by cheekybru, 02 April 2021 - 19:50.

[cheekybru]

Also glad they got a good long segment on Top Gear, hopefully this will attract some audience

Edited by cheekybru, 02 April 2021 - 19:54.

[Vielleicht]

Really curious to see how this turns out. It's really exceeded my expectations in terms of the calibre of participants and level of coverage.

 

The track looks pretty spectacular in all honesty, and that massive elevatin change is a hell of a feature.

 

Now we find out how it actually works as a broadcast product.

Edited by Vielleicht, 02 April 2021 - 21:34.

[Ben1445]

First qualifying begins in 5 minutes 

 

[Vielleicht]

Sebastien Leob up first for Lewis Hamilton's X44

 

Is not a sentence I was ever expecting to write...

[thegamer23]

Good morning!

Loeb about to start!

[Ben1445]

Turns out Sam Bird makes a pretty decent expert commentator 

[Vielleicht]

10:48.067 is the benchmark from Leob/Gutierrez

[Rumblestrip]

What happened to Buttons run? Isn't this live? Did he go first?

Edited by Rumblestrip, 03 April 2021 - 06:30.

[Requiem84]

Damn, there's a LOT of money into the production of such a starting series.

 

Extremely well done for a first try! 

 

I'm already sold on it now .

[Ben1445]

What happened to Buttons run? Isn't this live? Did he go first?

I think this is on delayed/edited replay, they made reference to it being 07:00 local time which would have been 5am UK time. 

 

I generally dislike non-live stuff, but to be honest there's a better chance of me getting up at 7am than 5am these days 

[OvDrone]

Literally just woke up.

 

Wait... is that Sam Bird ?

 

All of this is sooo fresh.

 

My gratitude for the great OP, Ben!

[thegamer23]

Loving it so far

[thegamer23]

Puncture!

[Ben1445]

Mad lap from Munnings with that puncture 

[OvDrone]

'Go big or go home' mode from Catie.

 

Aaaaand another, different shade of 'go big or go home' mode from Sarrazin.

Edited by OvDrone, 03 April 2021 - 06:45.

[Ben1445]

Sarrazin rolled it! 

[thegamer23]

Big rollover for Sarrazin!   

Quali over for the Veloce esports

Edited by thegamer23, 03 April 2021 - 06:44.

[Vielleicht]

Well I wouldn't describe this as boring

[thegamer23]

Those cars looks impressive.

Sainz now on the course

[Requiem84]

Sainz, 58, driving like he is 23. Damn, almost rolled it there too!

[Skizo]

Good so far,except the not live part,but i understand it.

Button was behind Loeb before switch,around 20 sec for sure hard to tell not enough timing info.JB switched at 5:30(2. driver at the door),Loeb stopped around 5:00-5:10 then 2. driver running to car.

 

Edit : and the car before end stopped,had to restart thats why the +1:30m time

Edited by Skizo, 03 April 2021 - 06:55.

[Requiem84]

A bit of a shame we don't have sector times?

[Marklar]

time to eat humble pie: this looks way more amazing than I thought

[dannyricsshoe]

Do you think there will ever be a day where Sainz wakes up one morning and thinks 'you know what, I think I'll do something else bar some rallying today'.

[Okyo]

A bit of a shame we don't have sector times?

This.

I do like the whole show and idea. But the fact that you really have to wait for the end of the lap to see how good someone is tends to make it less trackable/interactable. 

 

Gonna continue watching though. Race should be brilliant  

Edited by Okyo, 03 April 2021 - 07:06.

[Okyo]

Oh, now there's some timing during the lap (shows gap to leader).

Is someone from the sport here in the forum? 

Edited by Okyo, 03 April 2021 - 07:08.

[Ben1445]

We seem to be getting live splits on the second laps? 

[Okyo]

Quite more engaging now.

[Vielleicht]

And that is the first installment of the Hamilton vs Rosberg rivalry-by-proxy

[Ben1445]

Oh, Nico is on the ground on location

[OvDrone]

And that is the first installment of the Hamilton vs Rosberg rivalry-by-proxy

It's amazing for me to see one of my alltime favorite drivers - Loeb - drive for one of my current favorite drivers - Hamilton.

 

I was however apprehensive of Rosberg's lineup as Kristofferson is a BEAST.

[Requiem84]

Nico's interview as boring as being a F1 driver. 'It's still a long weekend, we learned a lot bla bla bla'.

Come on Nico, this is exciting new stuff, give us a bit of enthusiasm and better than you standard media quotes!

[Vielleicht]

Claudia Hürtgen!

[OvDrone]

Nico's interview as boring as being a F1 driver. 'It's still a long weekend, we learned a lot bla bla bla'.

Come on Nico, this is exciting new stuff, give us a bit of enthusiasm and better than you standard media quotes!

'For sure..'

[Requiem84]

Claudia Hürtgen!

 

Probably the slowest person on the course yet? 

 

Although clipping that flag just now was very cool haha .

[Vielleicht]

Oh damn.

[Flasheart]

Woohoo! Go Molly. That’s commitment. Doin’ it for the Aussies!

[Requiem84]

Holy moly! 

 

That was a massivveeee roll by her, damn, how did that happen??

[thegamer23]

Massive crash for Hurtgen!!

[Flasheart]

Oh crap. I hope Claudia is ok. That was big.

Phew!

Edited by Flasheart, 03 April 2021 - 07:25.

[Requiem84]

2 rolls out of 8 cars on the track, that is a very high percentage.

 

Course too dificult, or are they taking too much risks?

[thegamer23]

She's OK! 

 

BTW,

 

Rosberg 1 Sir Lewis 0 so far   

Can anyone beat Team Rosberg's time in this Quali 1?

[Ben1445]

2 rolls out of 8 cars on the track, that is a very high percentage.

 

Course too dificult, or are they taking too much risks?

Could be a mix of difficult course, competition risks and a relative lack of practice time? 

[Flasheart]

Damn, there's a LOT of money into the production of such a starting series.

Extremely well done for a first try!

I'm already sold on it now .

Agreed. Their production team have done a super job so far, especially on the live coverage.

[OvDrone]

Zonca with the right amount of hype and attitude right there!