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- The new race series is Formula E crossed with Dakar Rally and Rallycross.
- Rules allow for production-inspired bodywork for the 536-hp off-road vehicles that will participate in the series.
- Races will take place near sensitive environmental areas such as deforested parts of the Amazon to highlight the impact of climate change.
The climate-change apocalypse racing series you’ve been waiting for has arrived, and it’s called Extreme E. The brainchild of Formula E founder and CEO Alejandro Agag and McLaren Formula 1 sporting director (and Indianapolis 500 winner) Gil de Ferran, the new series will launch in 2021 with five locations already announced, all in remote locations that have been affected by climate change. The latest news for the series is the spec off-road racer shown here, which ran up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this week.
Named Odyssey 21, the all-terrain racer features SUV styling and a 536-hp electric powertrain with a battery from Williams Advanced Engineering. It’s built by Spark Racing Technology, the same company that manufactures cars for the Formula E series. And, as in Formula E, teams will be able to develop their own powertrains. Unlike the electric open-wheel series, Extreme E cars will also allow for custom body panels inspired by production vehicles.
The stated goal of Extreme E is to bring attention to the effects of climate change around the globe. As part of that mission, race events will take place in “extreme” environments that are threatened or have already seen the effects of rising global temperatures. The announced sites so far are somewhere on the Arctic ice, a Himalyan glacier, a deforested part of the Amazon, the Sahara desert, and an island in the Pacific Ocean. In a bid for even more eco-friendliness, Extreme E is using a renovated British Royal Mail ship, the RMS Saint Helena, as its base of operations, transporting all of the vehicles and acting as the team garages.
The racing itself will be a TV-friendly head-to-head format, with group matches followed by knockout tournament rounds. Courses will be about four to six miles long and have virtual gates, so that no actual infrastructure is needed to set up the tracks.
Spark Racing is set to deliver customer cars next March, with group tests taking place before the first race, currently scheduled for January 2021.
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