The key figure who sells Extreme E's environment dream

Extreme E enjoyed a largely successful start in Saudi Arabia, but questions remain over how the series can achieve its lofty environmental goals. For answers to why and where XE races, an expert voice lends vital credibility

Published Apr 6, 2021, 10:46 AM

Richard Washington is critically important to Extreme E. He is the person who can and does satisfactorily address the controversial questions, not skirt around them, to justify why this championship “built out of concern for the climate crisis” is comfortable to launch in an oil-rich, human rights-violating nation and why racing 1650kg all-electric SUVs is more beneficial to the environment than simply not racing at all.

His name is probably only fractionally more recognisable this week than it was last, thanks to it popping up during the broadcasts of the inaugural Extreme E round in Saudi Arabia. It shouldn’t be surprising that he finds obscurity in the world of motorsport. He is, after all, the professor of climate science at the University of Oxford and no retired racer or aerodynamics guru.

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.