The key figure who sells Extreme E's environment dream

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.

He is vital to validating Extreme E, far more so than the championship organisers currently realise. During Autosport’s trip to the Middle East, including time aboard the RMS St Helena ‘floating paddock’ to listen to lectures, Washington is the only figurehead who comes close to allaying scepticism about why this pioneering series has chosen to dock in Saudi and what lasting impact the ‘Legacy’ projects might have.

Those doubts are only enhanced during the first day of the mandatory 72-hour hotel quarantine that must be served on arrival in the country. In this time, The Guardian published the findings of a report that reckons Saudi has spent “at least $1.5 billion” on hosting high-profile international sporting events in an effort to bolster its global reputation.

When Extreme E co-founder and ex-Member of European Parliament Alejandro Agag is asked to justify why we’re in this country to launch a net carbon-zero championship, the evasive reply is ‘we don’t mix sports with politics’.

The captivating Spaniard says: “Nobody's perfect. The problem is, if you try to race in a perfect place we will race in the Vatican. All of you come from countries who haven't imposed sanctions in this country. Talk to your government, not to me! Why do you talk to me? I abide by the law. I don't get into politics.”

Alejandro Agag, CEO, Extreme E, in the press conference

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

For someone who seems a dead cert to go through an election process for the FIA presidency in the fullness of time, Autosport doesn’t quite buy into that last part. Motor racing in particular is a deeply political sport.

When McLaren Racing boss and Andretti United team co-owner Zak Brown is asked the same question, he reads from a similar hymn sheet to Agag. Brown says: “Sport has a great way of uniting the world and driving change, not getting caught up in the politics.

“There are controversial countries we race in, but they are trying to change. We’re here to race, to entertain and if countries want to welcome us to help transform their country, we’re contributing to the good intentions they have.”

PLUS: How Extreme E exceeded expectations to pass its first major test

Fortunately, Washington has a more satisfying and direct answer. He says: “We can say to Saudi, ‘You can keep all that money we should have taxed and didn’t’, or we can work together and use that resource to move things forward. They have the resource, and that needs to be ploughed back. Let’s do it.”

To their great credit, two-time World Rally champion Carlos Sainz Sr and Chip Ganassi Racing racer Sara Price were particularly hands on in filling their bin liners. Other drivers could be said to have been more content with perfecting the angle and light of their ‘selfie’

In short, the country owes a debt, which it can and does need to pay back. Using its vast wealth to tackle the environmental destruction, one of the nation’s own targets through the Vision 2030 programme, is the right way to engage with its top brass.

On the critical point of a history of human rights violations in Saudi, Washington equates doing nothing about the climate crisis to being a major breach all of its own.

A slight cynical aside here. Autosport gets chatting to a Saudi journalist in the media centre. He says his family owns a small construction company and has been tasked with turning Skegness doppelganger Jeddah into a city fit to host Formula 1 later this year. Part of this, he says, comes from building a marina to provide a background of yachts for the TV feed. Although it’s enormously difficult to authenticate his claims, he says this marina will include changing the profile of the shoreline and getting rid of coral. That’s something entirely separate to Extreme E. But in the case of Saudi, has the leopard really changed its spots?

Catie Munnings, Timmy Hansen, Andretti United Extreme E

Photo by: Charly Lopez / Motorsport Images

Back to Washington. He accepted the offer to join the Extreme E scientific committee within “30 seconds” of reading the email. He explains: “If you look back and see the trajectory in teaching and research terms, I’ve been witness to the unfolding and development of the climate story, so it probably seems odd for me to have anything to do with motorsport, but it was a very quick decision.

“If you dig a little bit deeper, it’s exactly the means we need to get people on to the trajectory to see things differently. In society, those that get left behind are the ones that don’t adapt.

“I have a connection as well: I have a 1969 Series 2 Land Rover that I love. I understand the appeal. I get the tension that could plausibly exist between climate scientists and someone who is passionate about motorsport. We don’t expect everyone to be carbon neutral tomorrow, but there is a process and it’s started. Anything we can do to get along that line is good.”

He was convinced by the tandem Legacy projects that aim to benefit the environments where rounds are held. And where he copped flak from his colleagues, ones who Washington says are militant to the point of using a scythe to cut the grass, he is fiercely pragmatic. He works to the understanding that environmental extremism, sitting atop and disrupting trains, is polarising. It doesn’t inspire the middle ground into becoming more active in doing their bit to help the planet.

The chief component of the Legacy project carried out by Extreme E in Saudi was a beach clean. Bringing up the rear, Autosport collected among other things a rusty knife and plastic water bottles that had been accidentally dropped by other members of the landing party. To their great credit, two-time World Rally champion Carlos Sainz Sr and Chip Ganassi Racing racer Sara Price were particularly hands on in filling their bin liners. Other drivers could be said to have been more content with perfecting the angle and light of their ‘selfie’.

What irked more was the 100 or so people on the beach, Autosport included, being ferried there by a fleet of GMC Yukon and Chevrolet Tahoe SUVs. The most frugal engine option in the range is a 5.3-litre V8. There was at least one Range Rover Sport SVR there too, the one with the supercharger.

But Washington again has a convincing reply when Autosport asks if that’s really in the best interest of the greater good. He kindly compresses his immense knowledge into the understandable “there is a cost to the evolution process. To make an omelette you do need to break eggs. We do break eggs. We make omelettes too.”

Richard Washington, Professor of Climate Science, Keble College, Oxford aboard The St Helena logistics ship

Photo by: Colin McMaster / Motorsport Images

There are still questions over the long-term and beneficial impact Extreme E will have on that beach. It was, after all, absolutely caked in dust from a very close by cement factory. A wall had been built that runs right through the beach to greatly disturb the nesting area for the Hawksbill and Green turtle residents.

Extreme E has collaborated with the Ba’a Foundation, “an organisation that focuses on preserving endangered species, natural habitats and historical sites to support turtle conservation along the Red Sea coastline”. The championship’s funding will bring in “imported sand” to help lower the current and alarming 90% mortality rate of turtle eggs on that stretch of shore.

“If scientists just talk to scientists, it’s never really going to get solved. You have to take a lot of people with you to get it solved and sport is such a unifier. It’s also something that stretches people, and humans need to be stretched in all sorts of ways to try and solve the problem we have” Richard Washington

Another aside. Although round one is barely done and dusted, it seems logical for Extreme E to visit each location only once to spread its help far and wide. If the championship has implemented a Legacy project in one area and with the long-lasting impact that implies, it makes little sense to return year on year. Even if the Saudis are offering subsidies.

Another question for another day. But if you take that one-shot root to its natural conclusion, that raises questions over how many years Extreme E can last. There are limited places that can accommodate the 334ft RMS St Helena. Its size played a large part in Nepal, which is also landlocked, falling off the calendar for this season.

Where Washington is most conclusive is with the exposure Extreme E will gain. He remarks that he’s spoken to more journalists in this one trip than in the rest of his career. Further, he reckons his papers are cited 10 or so times at best. Each from fellow academics who already share his way of thinking.

Extreme E offers a platform to potentially engage team owner Lewis Hamilton’s 6.2 million Twitter followers and members of the multi-million TV audience who happened to tune in last weekend by accident but stuck around for the duration despite their ambivalence towards motorsport. Even a fraction of those people beginning to do their bit for sustainability has a far greater benefit.

“If scientists just talk to scientists, it’s never really going to get solved,” says Washington. “You have to take a lot of people with you to get it solved and sport is such a unifier. It’s also something that stretches people, and humans need to be stretched in all sorts of ways to try and solve the problem we have.”

On the trip, it’s only Washington who offers that context, that sound reasoning. His voice is essential to validating so much of what Extreme E is built around.

Cristina Gutierrez, Sebastien Loeb, X44

Photo by: Colin McMaster / Motorsport Images