The Extreme E off-road championship has released new names including Billy Monger, Karun Chandhok and Jerome D’Ambrosio.
The electric off-road SUV racing series, Extreme E, which is set to kick-off in 2021 had released 12 names in the last two months, who signed up for the inaugural season. On Tuesday, the championship added 12 more names to have a total of 24.
The Extreme E E-SUV ODYSSEY 21 will be raced in Amazon Rainforest in Para (Brazil), Kangerlussuaq in Greenland, Saudi Arabia and Mustang District in Himalayas (Nepal), with one more coastal venue is yet to be revealed.
The initial confirmed names were Sebastien Ogier, Andreas Bakkerud, Kevin Bakkerud, Timmy Hansen Timo Scheider, Jamie Chadwick, Katherine Legge, Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky, Lucas di Grassi, Andre Lotterer, Sacha Prost and Nelson Piquet Jr.
In addition, teams like Venturi, ABT, HWA AG and Veloce Racing were also named, with more to join in before February 2021. The fresh list has a sound mix as well with single-seater racers like Monger, Chandhok, D’Ambrosio, Daniel Abt and Oliver Turvey named.
Dakar Rally winner Sam Sunderland features as well as he gets to drive cars as opposed to bikes, with DTM/sportscar racer Loic Duval in along with GT racer James Rossiter, ERC champion Chris Ingram and Japanese superbike rider Takuma Aoki.
The final two names in the new list released by Extreme E are of Hungarian rallycross and rallying heroes Krisztian Szabo and Zoltan Bessenyey. “Fighting climate change is incredibly important,” said Monger. “Everything we do now will affect future generations.
“It’s definitely a responsibility, and one that I can’t and won’t just ignore. The locations of Extreme E races are far from the public eye, and so they’re not the kind of place that most of us get to see day to day.
“Bringing attention to the impacts of human interference on these places to people who might not otherwise see it is an interesting concept – and the fact that people can learn about it whilst watching racing is really cool too.
“Knowing that the Extreme E legacy program is going to mean we leave the locations in a better place than we’ve found them is a massive draw too; it’s something that I would be really proud to be involved with.”
At the same time, the current Sky Sports F1 pundit, Chandhok added: “Extreme E is certainly going further outside the box in terms of the locations and the type of cars that will compete which will make it a very interesting challenge.
“Of course, the series is highlighting environmental and climate change issues which are so important for us to address, especially with the younger generations in mind. I want to be able to take my kids to see greenery, clean rivers and snow-capped mountains in future.
“That’s not going to happen if the people worldwide keep burying their head in the sand. You only have to visit places like the Great Barrier Reef to understand very quickly what a problem climate change is at the moment.
“In a five-minute conversation with people out there you quickly realise that this is a real problem that needs to be actively dealt with on a global level. From a sporting side, it’s appealing for someone like myself who’s spent my career racing on asphalt to do something so far outside my comfort zone.
“The head-to-head format is very interesting and the Extreme E ODYSSEY 21 looks wild! It should be a riot to drive. My dad took part in the Himalayan Rally in the mid 1980s in a Ford Escort and the pictures always looked amazing – I would love to follow in his footsteps and experience that for myself!”
Here’s the initial list of Extreme E racers
Here’s the details of Veloce Racing