How Extreme E exceeded expectations to pass its first major test

Extreme E’s maiden voyage into the breathtakingly beautiful AlUla desert in Saudi Arabia last weekend emphatically met Oscar Wilde’s criteria for what’s good and bad in life. The championship was talked about as Nico Rosberg’s handpicked driver line-up of Johan Kristoffersson and Molly Taylor scored an emphatic and historic victory amid the dunes. Social media was a motorsport hubbub during and after the action was beamed by satellites to be broadcast via UK television network colossuses ITV, BT Sport, Sky Sports and the BBC.

Series co-founder Alejandro Agag cares deeply about the spectacle. Those overlapping rights deals were offered for a minimal fee to get as many eyes as possible on his latest all-electric venture. He stopped by the media centre to watch the dramatic Shoot Out race and sat next to Autosport. Moments before Chip Ganassi Racing charger Kyle LeDuc wiped out Abt Cupra racer Claudia Hurtgen, he was imploring the director to cut from one camera angle to the next as the Odyssey 21 E-SUVs were lost amid the plumes of dust.