Extreme E cars strengthened for Jurassic X-Prix in bid to improve reliability

Unreliability has persisted through the four rounds held so far, with Autosport counting 22 failures in Greenland before Chip Ganassi Racing missed out on a maiden win in Sardinia when a steering arm failed.

Autosport understands the Odyssey 21 E-SUV was built to match a design brief given by Extreme E, but it is thought that later tweaks to the sporting format have since pushed the cars beyond these technical limits.

This means the cars run with 225kW in normal race mode due to the cooling demands on the battery, despite a maximum output of 400kW having been originally billed by the series,

Broken steering arms and suspension failure has been another regular source of contention, but Spark cited COVID calling off planned test races as a major contributing factor due to limited mileage to shakedown the car.

But drivers have expressed their frustration that, although they are making recommendations to Spark, the French car builder is “missing the right attitude” to make changes - according to Mattias Ekstrom.

Spark development engineer Pierre Prunin replied to these criticisms with: "If you talk about the drivers, they break the same parts and none of them tried to slow down."

But there have been modifications made to the nine Extreme E cars ahead of the season finale in Dorset, UK this weekend.

Catie Munnings, Timmy Hansen, Andretti United Extreme E

Photo by: Colin McMaster / Motorsport Images

In the updated parts list, new larger spherical joints and toe links have been installed.

Steering racks have also been upgraded while “high-Pressure lines have been reinforced” and “carbon layers will be added inside the doorsteps”.

These components have been tested by the teams previously in a post-event run in Sardinia.

However, the expectation is that the Jurassic X-Prix course at the Bovington tank proving ground will prove less demanding as the wet clay-like mud provides a softer landing.

Andretti United team principal Roger Griffiths told Autosport: “There’s been some upgrades for this race to really address some of the issues we’ve had in Sardinia, particularly around the steering system.

“They’re fairly straightforward, simplistic measures but should go a long way to fixing some of the problems.

“No one wanted to see a final [Sardinia] where only two cars [of five] where running in it by the end.

“The third-placed car shouldn’t just be the one that gets the furthest before it fails and with the quickest car broken at the side of the road.

“I think [Spark] are taking it pretty seriously. It’s an improvement but it’s not night and day different.

“There are some more fundamental things they need to address on the car, and I know they are working on these for next season.

“Hopefully we can get through this event without too many issues across the paddock and then look to more promising upgrades to the car for next year.”