How technical troubles detracted from Extreme E's Sardinia encounter

Alejandro Agag is a cool customer; someone who finds time to answer difficult questions with composure and a smile. And for all the flak aimed at Extreme E and Formula E – the two disruptive electric championships he has co-founded – for their perceived popular vote gimmicks in ‘grid play’ and ‘fanboost’, he values meritocratic sporting success.

He is also a negotiator, and cares greatly about how his motorsport series appear on TV. Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button likely wouldn’t be fielding teams alongside Chip Ganassi in Extreme E if it wasn’t for the Spaniard’s central role and persuasion. And he wants his audience to enjoy the best possible show.

When competitive effort and talent go unrewarded and the spectacle is needlessly diminished, he has been known to let his calm demeanour slip. One such occasion arrived four months ago in Puebla, Mexico, when Porsche was disqualified from its maiden Formula E triumph after its tyres were incorrectly declared to no competitive advantage. Another, it is said, came last weekend in Sardinia when Mr Ganassi was on site to watch his Extreme E team lose its probable first triumph to Rosberg X Racing when a spec trackrod snapped.

The Ganassi driver line-up is arguably the pick of the Extreme E grid, even if the names Kyle LeDuc and Sara Price don’t carry much weight this side of the Atlantic when they appear on the entry list alongside Sebastien Loeb, Carlos Sainz Sr and Johan Kristoffersson. But a massive crash in Saudi Arabia, a branch catching the car’s reset loop in Senegal, and steering arm failure in Greenland ensured that the American duo’s wait for a win has lingered on. So much so that, alongside Ganassi, the IndyCar team’s managing director Mike Hull flew in to advise the crew for its outing at the Teulada NATO base in the south of the Italian island.

A rocky start to qualifying, when Price clipped a boulder to trigger left-rear suspension failure, was overcome by the second-fastest time in the afternoon session to end up fifth in the combined results. Price and LeDuc went on to win the first semi-final on Sunday by default after Timmy Hansen had used his Andretti United machine to wipe out X44 driver Cristina Gutierrez in the heat. That landed the team in the Island X-Prix final, with LeDuc in the hot seat for the race start.

Sara Price, Kyle Leduc, Chip Ganassi Racing

Photo by: Charly Lopez / Motorsport Images

The short-course off-road truck champion escaped in second place as the JBXE and Rosberg X Racing cars lightly collided but, to avoid getting stuck behind lightning starter Loeb, LeDuc went rogue and opted not for one of the clearly defined dusty lanes to the first waypoint, but instead to plough his own route through the undergrowth. He clattered over the bumps but carried more speed by travelling as the crow flies to burst into a lead of three seconds as Loeb began to slip back with a front-left puncture. When the X44 car ground to a halt with its steering arm giving up the ghost, LeDuc escaped by a crushing 45s before handing the car over to Price.

She was on her way back to the 4.67-mile course, designed in part by two-time World Rally Championship-winning co-driver Tiziano Siviero, before her rivals had even entered the effective pitlane for the driver swaps. The win should have been hers.

With such a commanding advantage as his team-mate resumed, LeDuc found time for a TV interview from the sidelines to talk through how he’d got one over nine-time WRC champion Loeb. At that moment, the camera feed cut back to Price parking up with the front-left wheel pointing in by 45 degrees after the trackrod had cried mercy. Agag, one source said, was “furious”.

While Ekstrom reckons he spends nearly 400 miles to shake down his World Rallycross car ahead of a campaign, the total mileage of each Odyssey 21 E-SUV after four of the competitive five events is still under 200 miles

To the team it was a massive disappointment, if not wholly surprising. While LeDuc was busy helping Price fasten the belts as she clambered aboard for her stint, the crew chief had stuck his head under the wheel arches and spotted the bent part. Price was told over the radio to take it easy for the remainder, but that wasn’t enough to nurse the issue to the flag.

Ganassi team boss Dave Berkenfeld told Autosport: “We knew Loeb was fast, so Kyle was pushing on his lap. We were trying to open the gap as much as possible. Of course, we’re disappointed. But we knew at some point it would break, but the goal there is finish the lap. It’s a challenging situation.”

The “challenging situation” extends beyond the on-track drama. Chip Ganassi Racing and X44 reckoned they then didn’t have enough spare parts to conduct the post-event test on Monday, while the paddock’s patience with car constructor Spark Racing Technology had worn thin. That’s partly because of the litany of component failures that have dogged each of the four rounds to date, and also down to a sense from drivers that the manufacturer isn’t willing to listen to the advice that, in particular, Sainz and Mattias Ekstrom were trying to offer.

“Car development is a crucial part of your daily business,” Ekstrom told Autosport. “What we do now after having given feedback, how slow we are seeing development, that’s the reason the racing is how it is. That’s a shame. It’s not finding the money or the time, it’s just attitude. They’re missing the right attitude. To make a change, someone must really want to do it.”

Jutta Kleinschmidt, Mattias Ekstrom, ABT CUPRA XE

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images

The defence from Spark, headed up by development engineer Pierre Prunin, is that COVID canned many of its behind-closed-doors pre-season tests. While Ekstrom reckons he spends nearly 400 miles to shake down his World Rallycross car ahead of a campaign, the total mileage of each Odyssey 21 E-SUV after four of the competitive five events is still under 200 miles. Spark also reckons it’s addressed the myriad inverter faults that contributed to 22 technical failures in the previous Greenland round and that it’s improving the car all the time.

Less convincing was Prunin’s case that: “For sure, the car is too brittle for what we’ve seen today. We did this car with a limited budget; it’s not like we’re Audi or Peugeot. The drivers have huge expectations; they have driven the best cars in the world. Things need to be put in perspective. If you talk about the drivers, they break the same parts and none of them tried to slow down. The truth is a slow driver would have been on the podium. Even you [he gestures towards Autosport].”

The upshot is that Autosport clocked a couple of technicians from damper expert Fox Factory getting involved in Sardinia in anticipation of a change in supplier. The downside for Spark is that the 2021 campaign ends on 19 December. The cars must then be loaded onto the RMS St Helena for the second season on 3 January. With a couple of days lost to Christmas, that leaves little time to resolve the issues.

But those resolutions need to come, not only to appease the paddock, but also because it hinders what Extreme E does best: providing compelling scenes as some of the greatest rough-stuff drivers leap over crests, splash their way through water obstacles and battle tooth and nail with one another.

Sainz and Loeb were renowned in the WRC for their smooth style that did away with theatrical oversteer in the pursuit of vast success. In Extreme E, that arguably less entertaining trait is greatly masked, and they continue to provide the thrills.

While sceptics can and do find their massive grievances with this series’ environmental credentials, its motorsport is genuinely top drawer. Here, the work the championship chiefs have done should be viewed independently from the poorer job Spark is doing.

If these issues aren’t addressed, then a cloud will continue to hang over the brilliant stories Extreme E creates on repeat. One such compelling plot was provided by the Prodrive-run X44 squad. Loeb and his Dakar Rally regular team-mate Cristina Gutierrez were the benchmark in both qualifying sessions to line up in the first semi-final alongside Andretti United. Greenland event winner Hansen (AU) delivered a blistering launch from the far right side of the grid and glanced across the front of the Ganassi machine in a bid to avoid the unfavoured outer lane. That tag appeared to put Hansen on a trajectory that led him to hit Gutierrez on the rear-right corner, forcing the spare-time orthodontist over a bush. She veered to the right and, as she counter-steered to control the slide, caught a rock, speared off into a tree and retired from the heavy impact.

Damaged Cristina Gutierrez, Sebastien Loeb, X44 car after semi final race

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

Gutierrez, who suffered a fractured vertebra in a summer Kazakhstan rally event, was cleared by the medical centre and made do with some pain relief cream. The incident was immediately reviewed by the stewards, who found Hansen to be “wholly responsible” and moved to classify Andretti United last in the heat.

The American-Anglo squad accepted the blame and sent its mechanics, led by historic race car engineer Craig Glover, to assist the rebuild. X44 team manager Gus Beteli reckoned the shopping list included new right-rear suspension, front and rear clamshells, steering arms, replacing the floor and battery brace, plus cutting and re-welding the chassis brace. Four hours later, the car was ready for its truncated entry into the finale.

With Loeb and Price grinding to a halt, it left Rosberg X Racing’s duo of Kristoffersson and Australian rally champion Molly Taylor to take control. The Abt Cupra challenge had faltered immediately when Jutta Kleinschmidt failed to select drive and sat stationary at the line, but the 2001 Dakar Rally winner recovered strongly so that she and Taylor were only inches apart as they came in for the driver change.

If these issues aren’t addressed, then a cloud will continue to hang over the brilliant stories Extreme E creates on repeat

Kristoffersson enjoyed the quicker stop to bolt away for what would become the win, while Ekstrom’s right-hand door popped open and then jettisoned over a crest to leave the newly crowned Pure ETCR champion to take it gingerly through the water obstacles, which were sufficiently topped up after a rain shower hit minutes before the race.

Victory was sealed by 25s, although the slippery conditions meant Rosberg X Racing couldn’t pinch a further five points away from X44 for setting the fastest time in the pre-defined ‘super sector’. Curiously, the bonus score only adds to the teams’ championship total. So, despite the 100% qualifying record of Loeb and Gutierrez, they trail Kristoffersson and Taylor by 21 points in the drivers’ standings ahead of the rearranged season finale in Dorset.

Although Rosberg X Racing has won all but one round of this inaugural campaign, there’s only a 16-point split in the teams’ title race between Formula 1 world championship-winning owners Hamilton and Rosberg in the pseudo-epilogue to their Mercedes grand prix rivalry. That’s the show that Agag wants to take centre stage.

Molly Taylor, Johan Kristoffersson, Rosberg X Racing

Photo by: Charly Lopez / Motorsport Images