How Extreme E’s Arctic adventure gave a chilly reminder of the fixes to find

Extreme E’s third round provided the very definition of extreme conditions in the Artic Circle, and despite settling on a successful format and Andretti United taking a maiden win, there remains plenty of work to do with the spec cars that froze in action

Updated Aug 31, 2021, 3:54 AM

Last weekend in Belgium, the talk was that ‘Formula 1 cars are not designed to race in the wet’. Head northwest by 2200 miles and venture into the Arctic Circle, the paddock mutterings were gradually creeping towards ‘Extreme E cars are not built to survive racing off-road’.

While Timmy Hansen and Catie Munnings emerged as entirely deserving first-time winners for Andretti United in Greenland, when the championship fraternity significantly upped the town of Kangerlussuaq’s 500-strong population for a few days, their success arrived after a litany of glitches dashed the chances of Rosberg X Racing maintaining its perfect record.

comments

Author Matt Kew

Matt Kew is Autosport’s F1 Editor, a role he has held since March 2022 following stints covering Formula E, Extreme E and the British Touring Car Championship.

Matt joined Autosport in 2018 to work predominantly on the magazine, but his relentless quoting of Alan Partridge meant office colleagues soon thought he would be better-suited to increased field work.

Needless to say, Matt had the last laugh when he won the Motorsport UK Young Journalist of the Year Award in 2019.

His interest in motorsport was sparked by regular trips to watch ASCAR crash around Rockingham’s banked oval.

Matt read politics and philosophy at the University of Sheffield - receiving first-class honours for his dissertation assessing the lack of female participation in top-tier motor racing.

He covered a wide variety of national race and rally meetings for Autosport as a freelancer before joining full-time. His best efforts to argue the merits of historic racing are undone by a questionable taste in music and James Bond actors.