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

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.

All told, Autosport counted a season-high total of 22 occasions when the nine spec Odyssey 21 E-SUVs endured some kind of mechanical or technical failing that couldn’t be attributed to a crash. The power steering system was its usual suspect self; wheel rims, steering arms and suspension components cried mercy all too easily given the rough stuff design brief and despite the cool temperatures, the battery was not a happy Duracell bunny.

Championship co-founder Alejandro Agag reckoned it was a “miracle” more cars didn’t breakdown during a maiden event in Saudi Arabia in April. That came after a pre-season test event to further troubleshoot the machine was cancelled owing to the global health crisis.

In the AlUla desert, there were nine issues and then five on the Dakar beaches of Senegal. The reliability trend headed in the right direction. While the chilly conditions by the retreating Russell Glacier in Greenland should have shrunk the number even further, instead overheating was an unexpected headache.

Catie Munnings/Timmy Hansen, Andretti United Extreme E

Photo by: Colin McMaster / Motorsport Images

At full whack, the car is capable of 400kW. But that was wound down to 225kW for the first two rounds before 275kW was allowed for Friday free practice last weekend. However, Rosberg X Racing, Veloce Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing all had their runs curtailed by rising battery temperatures. Three-time World Rallycross champion Johan Kristoffersson was even told by technicians from car constructor Spark Racing Technology that his machine shutting down was a result of him “braking too hard”…

In response, the field was knocked back to 225kW for the Saturday morning qualifying sprint. Here, Kristoffersson was forced to stop on circuit a further three times – eventually pounding the dashboard in a fit of frustration. “Not very impressed” was hit curt assessment. When Andretti United’s Hansen endured a similar shutdown on his run, power was dialled back again to an all-time low of 200kW for the rest of the event.

This came alongside steering arm failures endured by JBXE and Veloce Racing and an innocent looking glance off a sand bank that collapsed the suspension for CGR’s Kyle Leduc. The American, who plies his trade in short-course off-road truck racing, joined Jenson Button in Saudi by leading the pleas for the rear suspension to be rethought to increase its travel to curtail the unhealthy appetite for flicking into the air at random. Little wonder there were louder calls for Spark – best-known for making the Gen1 and Gen2 Formula E machines – to lavish its €1.35 million first-ever off-road creation with updates.

"We need to keep working and I’m sure that the car has to become more reliable. We need to make sure the suspension is working better. But this is part of the game" Carlos Sainz

Double World Rally champion and Dakar Rally regular Carlos Sainz Sr was more than willing to allow engineers tap into his experience, saying: “There is work to do with the car. We have seen many problems. We are pushing very hard, probably too much for what the cars can take.

“We need to keep working and I’m sure that the car has to become more reliable. We need to make sure the suspension is working better. But this is part of the game. I hope that Spark, the technical people, are improving.

“I’m trying to give to Alejandro [Agag] and to Spark all of my knowledge. I have white hair, I’m the most veteran driver. I have been driving in the World Rally Championship but especially in the Dakar with good teams, good manufacturers, good cars.”

Carlos Sainz, Sainz XE Team

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Part of the frustration with the kit comes from the fact that as a high-profile series bustling with pukka professional teams and big-named drivers, expectations are high and simply not being met at present. But more than that, cars slowing without meaningful reason puts a natural limit to the number of astonishing overtakes and the amount of breathless action that Extreme E has been breeding brilliantly in its young life. That aspect was still at its best.

Of the single-car qualifying runs, Rosberg X Racing driver Molly Taylor stole the show but rather wished she hadn’t. Fighting back from Kristoffersson’s stoppages, she took over the car and tried to recover lost time.

In doing so, she jumped over a crest, landed heavily on the front axle and the right two wheels dug in as they came back down to earth. The car rolled over but in anticipation of landing sunny side up, she pinned the throttle and scrabbled away without a moment’s hesitation. Incidentally, damage was only cosmetic. It was instantly reminiscent of Colin McRae’s mistake aboard a gold Subaru Impreza in the 2006 X Games – a stunt that did his profile in the United States no harm at all.

The 2016 Australian Rally champion explained: “The speed and the line were the same as Johan [the lap before] when you look at the data. It was a bit of a shock really, because I didn’t see it coming. It hit really badly on the take off and then I was a bit of a passenger at that point. But I had the feeling like it was going to roll all the way over, so I just got ready with the throttle just in case we were all good.”

X44 maintained its 100% qualifying streak thanks to Sebastien Loeb and spare-time orthodontist Cristina Gutierrez, who made her competitive motorsport return after fracturing two vertebrae on a rally raid event in Kazakhstan. Agag had organised a plane for her to fly back to swiftly begin her recovery in June.

Overnight rain that persisted on Sunday and a redesigned, flatter course between waypoints two through six – ostensibly to further relieve strain on the componentry – gave a far muddier lap a new look as the first semi-final arrived.

Start of the Artic X Prix final race

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Lewis Hamilton’s team won the heat, Loeb hopping in second and eviscerating the 13s advantage Sainz had established by starting his Acciona Sainz machine. The nine-time World Rally champion’s run was capped off by an entertaining scrap with Veloce Racing’s Stephane Sarrazin, eventually passing the experienced endurance racer with a cheeky dive up the inside by the supposedly single-file lake section.

That pass had left Sarrazin in last place in the three-car tussle, so he went for broke. As the trio approached the treacherous ‘rock garden’ segment, the French racer pulled hard to the right to take a brand-new racing line.

He cut through the roughest part of the mini boulder field, clattered over the stones, and emerged in an unexpected and remarkable lead. But it was only for a moment. Sarrazin’s maverick move was undone as the front-left suspension failed in tandem with a rear-left puncture on the run to the line as Loeb beat Sainz’s team-mate Laia Sanz by just 0.729s.

"I loved the challenge of this course. It literally changed every time you saw it. Every car would chuck out massive rocks and so your line might not be there, so it was a very spontaneous style of driving" Catie Munnings

Andretti United found its groove in the second semi-final, following a qualifying effort stymied by Hansen’s shutdown. The 2019 World RX champion was the last of the late brakers into the first defined corner, a right-hand kink, to take the lead over rival Kristoffersson and Abt Cupra’s Jutta Kleinschmidt, who very quickly fell back with a broken driveshaft.

Kristoffersson responded with an early use of the brief 400kW hyperdrive boost to hit first place, but his efforts were compromised when he hit a patch of mud on the run to the lake and understeered wide.

As he used the throttle to rotate the Rosberg X Racing car, the rear clipped a waypoint flag and he earned a 10s reprimand as Hansen powered past with hyperdrive over the riverbed. Kristoffersson regained the lead on the run into the driver swap zone with a late-braking pass before handing over to Taylor. She scarpered away with a 2s lead initially but Munnings, in for Hansen, gave chase and slipped through for first place when Taylor ran wide to win by 1.2s, which became 11.2s with the penalty applied.

Jutta Kleinschmidt, Mattias Ekstrom, ABT CUPRA XE Molly Taylor, Johan Kristoffersson, Rosberg X Racing, Catie Munnings, Timmy Hansen, Andretti United Extreme E

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

With JBXE progressing from the playoff race, after CGR and Xite Energy Racing both suffered car failures following unsuspecting knocks, Extreme E’s latest format tweak had created its first five-car grid for the grand finale. Munnings elected to take the start and lined up on the far-right side of the grid, with the JBXE (Kevin Hansen), Acciona Sainz (Sanz), X44 (Loeb) and Rosberg X Racing (Taylor) cars to her left.

The former CBeebies presenter enjoyed the quietest launch initially as the JBXE and Acciona Sainz machines traded paint, while Loeb and Taylor also tagged over the early crests. Sanz was flicked wide by one of the jumps to fall back to last as Munnings ran down the inside of the first corner and pinned the hyperdrive boost to nab the advantage.

Loeb then activated his power hike to squeeze into the gap between Taylor and Munnings to make it a three-way sprint to the following tight left-hander. Munnings backed off as Loeb took position with Taylor sneaking into second.

With X44 in prime position, Loeb was able to pull away, extending his lead from 2s up to an eventual 18s when he completed his lap and ran into the driver swap zone. Taylor held second as Hansen hit a sand bank to give Munnings some respite in third. However, the X44 run was blunted by a right-rear puncture sustained late in the lap. Loeb and one crew member began the tyre change at the driver swap, which allowed Timmy Hansen to take over from Munnings and grab the lead ahead of Kristoffersson, who replaced Taylor.

The two World RX rivals battled fiercely, running side-by-side, until Kristoffersson hit trouble. He effectively leapt into the lead momentarily with huge air over a crest, but the massive impact on landing forced yet another car shutdown. That earned Hansen a healthy 2.6s cushion over Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky, aboard the JBXE car, and he then thumbed hyperdrive to build his advantage before snaring the Arctic X-Prix by 4.159s.

“I had a couple of moments really on the limit in the final and then I realised I had to back off a little bit and take it easy,” said Hansen.

Munnings added: “I loved the challenge of this course. It literally changed every time you saw it. Every car would chuck out massive rocks and so your line might not be there, so it was a very spontaneous style of driving.”

Catie Munnings, Timmy Hansen, Andretti United Extreme E, Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky, Kevin Hansen, JBXE Extreme-E Team

Photo by: Colin McMaster / Motorsport Images

Ahlin-Kottulinsky delivered second to earn Button’s team its best result to date while third place was settled in a near photo finish. Sainz and Gutierrez, swapping for Loeb, had exited the driver swap zone side-by-side and even appeared to make contact. While Sainz could pull away over the lap, Gutierrez cut the last waypoint flag to cross the line only five hundredths apart. But the final place on the podium eventually fell to the Acciona Sainz squad, with X44 earning a 5s penalty for missing the checkpoint.

Kristoffersson managed to finally restart his car and would finish the final more than a minute behind Andretti United. However, Rosberg X Racing still retains the standings lead by nine points over X44, with Andretti United climbing to third.

With three rounds of the scheduled five completed, over half of the dramatic racing has taken place. The spectacle has been stellar for the duration, but the equipment far less so. For the sporting side of this championship, that has to be priority number one over the two months leading up to Sardinia. The format is sound now and needs to be left alone after a plethora of tweaks, while Spark must reach for its spanners.

Emma Gilmour, Stephane Sarrazin, Veloce Racing damaged car

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images