Despite the fact that the very first race weekend in the history of the Extreme E left positive feelings and a lot of excitement in the competition, there are still things to adjust in the fledgling category of electric motorsport.
The intense dust of the desert that gave little visibility and the accidents that occurred in Saudi Arabia, left some questions about the modifications that the organizers should make in this regard.
The founder of the Extreme E, Alejandro Agag, announced that there will be “tinkering” for the next races to avoid situations that cloud the development of the contest.
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“The first race in Saudi Arabia wasn’t perfect, with dust a particular problem making the cars following the leader hard for viewers – and other competitors – to seem,” Agag acknowledged during an interview with Motorsport.
“Dust is never under control, because it’s off-road, so you always have that,” he said. “We will not have as much dust in Dakar as in Saudi. Actually, when we were testing the track in Saudi in January there was a lot less dust,” he admitted.
He reported that they are considering establishing a “sprint” at the end of the lap so that the drivers have to slow down, but then carry out an exciting counterattack. “We are going to work on it, we are going to adjust the format. It was the first time and we are going to improve that,” said Agag.
Image: Colin McMaster / LAT Images
Satisfaction in the face of adversity
The aforementioned difficulties that appeared in the first X Prix did not make the Extreme E boss frustrated. On the contrary, he was fascinated and proud that his idea was finally realized after an enormous effort with his team.
“There was a lot of expectation but the reaction has been fantastic. I think we exceeded our expectations. We want to improve it, there are lessons to be learned from the first race; the dust, the racing format, there are many elements we will be tweaking, but I think the core is fantastic,” Agag told Motorsport.
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“I feel relieved, because there were many challenges and many risks, and many things could have gone wrong. And we managed to, to overcome most of them,” Agag added.
He stressed that the desert experienced an unbeatable environment due to the originality of the format that brings together female and male pilots to give a message and values of gender equality. “It was great to see all of them perform fantastically well. Molly Taylor winning the race; so the winner crossing the line was a woman – that was really exciting.”
A hopeful message
Agag believes that with the climate crisis that the planet is experiencing, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Extreme’s message comes at an opportune moment to give a great “shake” and show humanity that it is time to establish big changes in lifestyle.
“I think Extreme E is going to evolve in different directions. I think the impact we can have in the locations is important and different locations around the world, or to come back maybe not every year, but every two years because we want to see the impact that Extreme E has on that specific location,” said.
Written by I Jhonattan González
