28 Nov 2022
How X44 Vida Carbon Racing claimed their maiden Extreme E Championship
After narrowly missing out on title glory in Extreme E’s inaugural campaign, X44 Vida Carbon Racing entered Season 2 on a mission to win. Despite tough competition from RXR and some setbacks, they brilliantly delivered at the Uruguay Naturals Energy X Prix, claiming third place to secure their maiden Extreme E Championship title in a nail-biting final round.
How did they do it? We caught up with the X44’s leading players to find out.
Lewis Hamilton's X44 team entered the 2022 season hungry for redemption after being denied championship glory in Season 1, due to having fewer X Prix victories than RXR over the course of the campaign. Season 2 was the opportunity to turn the tides.
Desert X Prix
At the season-opener in NEOM, Saudi Arabia, X44 Vida Carbon Racing laid down the gauntlet by securing first place in Qualifying, as well as progression through to the Desert X Prix Final.
However, despite flashes of speed, Sunday afternoon brought the team less reward. After Kristoffersson and Sanz pulled brilliant Final laps, securing P1 and P2 for RXR and ACCIONA | SAINZ XE Team, respectively, Sébastien Loeb and Cristina Gutiérrez could only secure third spot on the podium.
NEOM Island X Prix I & II
X44 Vida Carbon Racing met similar misfortune during the second round of the season in Sardinia. Here, a difficult start ensured that the NEOM Island X Prix I was the first event that didn’t have Sébastien Loeb and Cristina Gutiérrez competing in the Final.
While Saturday’s Qualifying 1 was tricky for the team, with Loeb even helping to change a tyre in the Switch Zone, Q2 showed promise. Here, a masterclass from Loeb saw the team gain two track positions in the five-car Heat, claiming third in Qualifying overall.
The main troubles of the weekend struck on Sunday, with a struggle to set-off after the driver switch in Semi Final 2. Gutiérrez was unable to close the subsequent gap and the team fell short of a place in the Final, ending the X Prix in sixth.
X44 returned to fighting form at the NEOM Island X Prix II, securing third in the Q1 standings, ahead of NEOM McLaren Extreme E and Genesys Andretti United Extreme E, respectively.
In Qualifying 2, Loeb and Gutiérrez picked up the chase, competing with RXR for that elusive top spot. Although the team picked up a 15-second penalty for leaving the Switch Zone too soon, their impressive pace they retained second place overall and proceeded to Semi-Final 2.
It seemed the NEOM Island X Prix II had finally delivered the whole package for X44 Vida Carbon Racing. In the Final, their pace was strong enough to claim second and their best result of the season to date. This meant the team entered the closing stages of the season on the coattails of the top three, just one point behind ACCIONA | SAINZ XE Team in third.
Antofagasta Minerals Copper X Prix
In September, X44 Vida Carbon Racing finally produced a result that reflected their promise, claiming their first race victory of the season in Antofagasta, Chile.
The success of the weekend began on Saturday, with the team placing second in Qualifying overall. The team carried that momentum into Q2, where Loeb and Gutiérrez managed to secure their spot in Semi-Final 2, despite collecting a 10-second penalty for driving through a waypoint flag.
In Sunday’s Final, a dramatic turn of events saw multiple penalties accrued for X44 Vida Carbon Racing’s competitors, making way for Loeb and Gutiérrez to claim the top step of the podium.
As a result, Lewis Hamilton’s team successfully propelled themselves into the championship picture. Sitting only 17 points behind RXR going into the final X Prix weekend, the battle for the championship was in full swing.
Uruguay Natural Energy X Prix
Despite the momentum from their victory at the Antofagasta Minerals Copper X Prix, X44 Vida Carbon Racing didn’t get the start they needed in Uruguay, as crash for Gutiérrez in Q1 put the team on the backfoot.
Alongside the DNF, the team were forced to use the championship car in place of their damaged ODYSSEY 21. Adding to the struggles of adapting to a new machine, the replacement incurred a five-second penalty that would later be served in the Crazy Race.
Loeb said: “When we used the second car it was the first time, we have ever changed the chassis. We had to get used to the car, it wasn’t working exactly like ours. The seat position, the pedals, everything was wrong, so we had to adapt in Q2 to try to get used to it. In the night, the team did a great job adjusting the car to make it more like the old car, so it felt a lot better for Finals Day.”
With the odds stacked against them, Loeb took a gamble and dropped to the back of the field in his Q2 Heat. This gave the Frenchman the clean air he needed to take on the Continental Traction Challenge, and Loeb’s bold tactics paid off. The team stormed to a time half a second quicker than the nearest challengers in the sector, earning five points that proved crucial come Finals Day.
This switched-on thinking came with its risks, as the team sealed their fate with a spot in the Crazy Racing alongside championship leaders RXR – a first for both teams as the title came down a wheel-to-wheel battle between the top two. X44 Vida Carbon Racing came out on top to take the fifth spot the Final, while RXR were disqualified for using too many engineers in the Switch Zone as they tried to get their damaged ODYSSEY 21 back out on course for crucial points.
The stakes were high, as Lewis Hamilton’s outfit needing at least third place in the Final to snatch the championship, and from the outset it was clear that it would be no easy task for X44 Vida Carbon Racing as Loeb slotted into fourth on his stint.
Championship glory slipped further and further away from the challengers, as Genesys Andretti United Extreme E’s Timmy Hansen kept Loeb at bay, leaving Gutiérrez to chase down Catie Munnings. Just as time seemed to be running out for X44 Vida Carbon Racing, a seven-second penalty came through for Genesys Andretti United Extreme E for speeding in the Switch Zone.
This was the lifeline that Gutiérrez needed, and the Spaniard crossed the line within two seconds of Munnings, thus securing third place and the championship title for X44 Vida Carbon Racing, just two points clear of RXR.
Gutiérrez said: "I still can’t believe it! It was a very tough weekend for us, especially after my roll yesterday. The team did a crazy job with the (spare) car and Qualifying 2 was the first time we had driven it.
"As for the Final, on the radio they told me someone was going to be penalised but still I didn’t know. I wanted to be sure that we won so I did not celebrate before it was official. It was a rollercoaster, but it is much better than that for us as we can now believe in what we have achieved."
To learn more about Extreme E, visit - www.Extreme-E.com
ENDS
Contact Information
Simra Gulzar
Extreme E
+44 7552 858229
media@extreme-e.com
Josh Bell
MPA Creative
+44 7557 102540
jb@mpacreative.com
Diego Bustos
BE Mass Media
(Latin America -including Brazil-, US Hispanics, Spain, Portugal)
+569-8829-9138 or
+1-660-847-4645
diego.bustos@bemassmedia.com
About Extreme E:
Extreme E is a radical new racing series, which will see electric SUVs competing in extreme environments around the world which have already been damaged or affected by climate and environmental issues. The five-race global voyage highlights the impact of climate change and human interference in some of the world’s most remote locations and promotes the adoption of electric vehicles in the quest for a lower carbon future for the planet.
To minimise local impact, Extreme E races will not be open to spectators, with fans instead invited to follow the action through live TV broadcast, and on social media.
The St. Helena, a former passenger cargo ship, has undergone a multi-million Euro refit to minimise emissions and transform her into Extreme E’s operations hub. The ship will be used to transport the championship’s freight and infrastructure, including vehicles, to the nearest port, minimising Extreme E’s footprint, as well as being used to facilitate scientific research through its on-board laboratory.
Extreme E is also pioneering hydrogen fuel cell technology which will enable its race fleet to be charged using zero emission energy.
Season 3 Calendar
Saudi Arabia: 11-12 March 2023
Scotland, UK: 13-14 May 2023
Sardinia, Italy: 08-09 July 2023
Amazon or USA: 16-17 September 2023
Chile 02-03: December 2023
About Continental Tires: Founding Partner and Official Tire Partner
Continental develops pioneering technologies and services for sustainable and connected mobility of people and their goods. Founded in 1871, the technology company offers safe, efficient, intelligent, and affordable solutions for vehicles, machines, traffic and transportation. Continental generated preliminary sales of €37.7 billion in 2020 and currently employs more than 235,000 people in 58 countries and markets. In 2021, the company celebrates its 150th anniversary.
The Tires business area has 24 production and development locations worldwide. Continental is one of the leading tire manufacturers with more than 56,000 employees and posted preliminary sales of €10.2 billion in 2020 in this business area. Continental ranks among the technology leaders in tire production and offers a broad product range for passenger cars, commercial and special-purpose vehicles as well as two-wheelers. Through continuous investment in research and development, Continental makes a major contribution to safe, cost effective and ecologically efficient mobility. The portfolio of the Tires business area includes services for the tire trade and fleet applications, as well as digital management systems for tires.
About ENOWA
About ENOWA: ENOWA is a world-class energy, water and hydrogen company founded in NEOM, Saudi Arabia. ENOWA produces and delivers clean and sustainable resources for industrial and commercial applications using a customer-centric smart and connected system, designed to be circular and takes advantage of NEOM's optimal solar and wind energy profile. ENOWA benefits from NEOM's greenfield site, which has no legacy infrastructure, to advance Energy, Water, and Hydrogen innovation.
ENOWA will act as a catalyst and incubator for developing new, sustainable energy and water businesses while creating a robust economic sector regionally. Through its commitment to renewable energy and efficient water management, ENOWA seeks to become a global reference for industry leaders and setting a benchmark for sustainable economic circular systems around the world.
For more information, please visit enowa.neom.com
About NEOM: NEOM is an accelerator of human progress and a vision of what a New Future might look like. It is a region in northwest Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea being built from the ground up as a living laboratory – a place where entrepreneurship will chart the course for this New Future. It will be a destination and a home for people who dream big and want to be part of building a new model for exceptional livability, creating thriving businesses and reinventing environmental conservation.
NEOM will include hyperconnected, cognitive towns and cities, ports and enterprise zones, research centers, sports and entertainment venues and tourist destinations. As a hub for innovation, entrepreneurs, business leaders and companies will come to research, incubate and commercialize new technologies and enterprises in groundbreaking ways. Residents of NEOM will embody an international ethos and embrace a culture of exploration, risk-taking and diversity.
For further information email media@neom.com or visit www.neom.comand www.neom.com/en-us/newsroom
About CBMM: Founding Supplier
CBMM is the world leading supplier of niobium products and technology. Headquartered in Brazil, with offices and subsidiaries in China, Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States.
CBMM offers technical innovation to customers around the globe through a team of over 2,000 highly trained, dedicated professionals providing cutting-edge niobium products and technology to over 400 clients in around 40 countries.
About PANGAIA
PANGAIA is a materials science company on a mission to save our environment. We are a global collective of one heart and many hands — scientists, technologists, designers — creating essential products from innovative tech and bio-engineered materials.
About LVRSustainable
LVRSustainable is the section of LuisaViaRoma that offers a carefully curated selection of the best sustainable brands and carries out special collaborations with non-profit entities, charitable organisations, and brands to support social and environmental causes. LVRSustainable aims to build a global sustainable community and to promote supporting conscious fashion based on the following criteria: organic, vegan, fair trade, eco-friendly, women’s empowerment, community engagement, recycling & upcycling, and luxury craftsmanship.
About LuisaViaRoma
LuisaViaRoma is one of the world’s leading online luxury fashion retailers. Founded in 1929 by the Panconesi family with the opening of a small hat boutique on Via Roma in Florence, to then creating LUISAVIAROMA.COM in the 2000s it became the first online fashion platform to combine an avant-garde concept store with a strong digital presence. Currently, over 230 people from all over the world work at LuisaViaRoma. Based in Florence, the company ships to over 120 countries and closed 2020 with a turnover of approximately 180 million euros, of which over 90% resulting from online sales and over 75% from purchases by international customers.
About Zenith: Official Timekeeper and Founding Partner
ZENITH: TIME TO REACH YOUR STAR.
Zenith exists to inspire individuals to pursue their dreams and make them come true – against all odds. Since its establishment in 1865, Zenith became the first watch manufacture in the modern sense of the term, and its watches have accompanied extraordinary figures that dreamt big and strived to achieve the impossible – from Louis Blériot’s history-making flight across the English Channel to Felix Baumgartner’s record-setting stratospheric free-fall jump. Zenith is also highlighting visionary and trailblazing women – past and present – by celebrating their accomplishments and creating in 2020 its first-ever collection dedicated entirely to them, Defy Midnight.
With innovation as its guiding star, Zenith features exceptional in-house developed and manufactured movements in all its watches. Since the creation of the El Primero in 1969, the world’s first automatic chronograph calibre, Zenith has gone on to master fractions of the second with the Chronomaster Sport and its 1/10th of a second precision and the DEFY 21 with a precision of 1/100th of a second. Zenith has been shaping the future of Swiss watchmaking since 1865, accompanying those who dare to challenge themselves and break barriers. The time to reach your star is now.
About Allianz: Founding Partner and Official Insurance Partner
The Allianz Group is one of the world's leading insurers and asset managers with more than 100 million private and corporate customers in more than 70 countries. Allianz customers benefit from a broad range of personal and corporate insurance services, ranging from property, life and health insurance to assistance services to credit insurance and global business insurance. Allianz is one of the world’s largest investors, managing around 790 billion euros on behalf of its insurance customers. Furthermore, our asset managers PIMCO and Allianz Global Investors manage 1.7 trillion euros of third-party assets. Thanks to our systematic integration of ecological and social criteria in our business processes and investment decisions, we are amongst the leaders in the insurance industry in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. In 2020, over 150,000 employees achieved total revenues of 140 billion euros and an operating profit of 10.8 billion euros for the group.
About Vodafone Business: Official Technology and Communication Partner
With expertise in connectivity, global scale and the leading IoT platform, Vodafone Business is a leading technology communications company helping organisations succeed in a digital world and keeping society connected. Vodafone’s purpose is to connect for a better future, enabling an inclusive and sustainable digital society, and many of its solutions have sustainability and inclusivity embedded.
Unique in its scale as the largest pan-European and African technology communications company, Vodafone transforms the way we live and work through its innovation, technology, connectivity, platforms, products and services. Vodafone operates mobile and fixed networks in 21 countries, and partners with mobile networks in 52 more. As of 31 December 2021, they had over 300m mobile customers, more than 28m fixed broadband customers and over 22m TV customers.
This collaboration will see Vodafone Business leading innovations and capabilities such as 5G, MPN, IOT and MEC, integrated into Extreme E’s global operations and will include full involvement in the purpose- driven elements of the series, with special prominence on Extreme E’s Legacy Programmes and the Science Laboratory on board the St Helena.Through its IOT solutions, Vodafone Business is helping sustainability efforts, including agriculture, forestation and decarbonisation of energy grids.
Find out more on http://www.Vodafone.com/business and follow Vodafone on its social media channels:
Twitter: @VodafoneGroup
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/vodafone
About ALLCOT: Extreme E's Official Environmental Credit Supplier
ALLCOT provides innovative project development, carbon markets, and sustainability advisory services since 2009.ALLCOT’s unique approach is based on using Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, its linkage to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), non-market approaches, and other market mechanisms.
ALLCOT aims to lead and accelerate the global transition towards a climate-neutral society by 2050. ALLCOT provides knowledge and expertise to implement climate change intervention initiatives and carbon projects that rely on nature-based and technology-based approaches.
ALLCOT supports firms and public bodies in developing their own emission reduction initiatives by providing consulting services for various carbon quantification standards (CDM, VCS, GS), as well as for various sectors (forestry, waste, renewable energy, transportation, sports). The entire carbon credit value chain is encompassed by these consulting services created under the Paris agreement.
Find out more: www.allcot.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/allcot/
About Neat Burger: Official Vegan Partner
Neat Burger is one of the world’s fastest growing plant-based sustainable burger chains, backed by key investors Formula 1 Champion and X44 Extreme E team owner, Lewis Hamilton, and actor and environmentalist, Leonardo DiCaprio.
Established in 2019, Neat Burger has achieved not only a loyal fanbase but industry recognition too, having won for a second year running the UK’s Best Vegan Restaurant of the Year at the Deliveroo Restaurant Awards and it was nominated for the 2021 GQ Food & Drink Sustainability Award. Most recently, the brand was awarded PETA’s inaugural Company of the Year Award for its game changing approach to plant-based diets, encouraging people to eat delicious, protein-packed plant-based meals.
As part of its mission to create a sustainable future, Neat Burger is working with Eden Reforestation Projects on its large-scale reforestation initiatives. In 2021, Neat Burger funded the planting of over one million mangrove trees in Madagascar.
About EY: Official Innovation Partner
EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, strategy, transaction and consulting services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities.
EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. Information about how EY collects and uses personal data and a description of the rights individuals have under data protection legislation are available via ey.com/privacy. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.
This news release has been issued by EYGM Limited, a member of the global EY organization that also does not provide any services to clients.
About INTERprotección: Official Insurance Broker
INTERprotección is composed of a group of Mexican insurance, reinsurance and surety bond brokerage companies. With global presence and recognition, INTERprotección has more than 40 years of experience in management and comprehensive risk consulting in the Mexican market. Its business model is focused on bringing the client to the forefront and offering them the best service through innovative and disruptive products, more recently with its new brand inter.mx, its insurance digital platform that is transforming the insurtech game. Follow INTERprotección on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter @INTERproteccion
About Enel X Way: Official Smart Charging Partner
Enel X Way is the Enel Group's new global business line entirely dedicated to electric mobility. Currently, Enel X Way manages approximately 320,000 charging points, both directly and through interoperability agreements in place worldwide1. As a global platform for e-mobility, the company is focused on developing flexible charging technologies and solutions to improve the customer experience by supporting the electrification of transport for consumers, businesses, cities and public administrations
Find out more on https://enelxway.it/en/home and follow Enel X Way on its social media channels:
LinkedIn: Enel X Way
Twitter: @enelxway
Instagram: @enelxway
Facebook: @enelxway
1 Public and private charging points, including points of interoperability.
About XITE ENERGY: Official Energy Drink Partner
XITE ENERGY was founded by Oliver Bennett and Megan Jones straight out of university two years ago. XITE brings disruptive innovation within the beverage industry; a new frontier to energy drinks. Designed around functionality but with no limitations on health, XITE ENERGY uses functional ingredients that are fused together to provide a cognitive boost, combining natural flavours, natural caffeine and zero sugar.
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