- Laia Sanz and Carlos Sainz kickstart the Season 2 of Extreme E in the Saudi desert.
- One of the challenges of this weekend is set to be visibility, as the track is really fast and sandy.
ACCIONA | SAINZ XE Team races this weekend at the Desert X Prix, which marks the start of the second season of the Extreme E Championship. The event takes place in Neom, Saudi Arabia, in a track that is over six kilometres long.
This is the second time that the ground-breaking off-road electric championship races in Saudi Arabia. This time it does so in Neom, a region in the northwest of the map that is being heavily developed in recent times and that plays a key role in the plans of the country for 2030.
This year ASXE Team strengthens its goals of aiming for wins and the overall Championship. To achieve them it relies on a solid line-up formed by Laia Sanz and Carlos Sainz, who in 2021 already clinched a podium and showed great pace, especially in the last rounds of the calendar.
Laia and Carlos have already inspected the track first-hand. The circuit is over six kilometres long and is extremely fast. It is dominated by sandy tracks and thus visibility could become a major factor because cars are likely to pick up a lot of dust when they race at full speed.
This season promises to be especially challenging. Not only does every team have now more racing experience after last year, but now there is a brand-new formation in the series and also new stars in the grid that strengthen the level of the Championship.
LEGACY PROGRAMME
Leading up to the Desert X Prix, the drivers have taken part in the activities of the Legacy Programme to put the focus on the conservation of the environment.
In Saudi Arabia, Extreme E has teamed up with an initiative that aims to reforest the region. Neom used to be a much greener area a few centuries ago and now the goal is to plant ten million trees in the next twenty years to try and recover these ecosystems.
The drivers have also gotten to know first-hand the ongoing efforts to try and protect the local wildlife, especially lizards.
CHANGES TO THE RACE FORMAT
This new season of Extreme E also brings changes to the format of the racing weekend.
The biggest change is in the Qualifying, which is no longer a time-trial but two Qualifying races that define the starting grids of the Semi-Finals and the Crazy Race.
On Saturday there will be two Qualifying sessions, each containing two five-car races that will be two laps long and feature a driver switch at the end of the first lap.
Teams will score points depending on their result: if they win, they will get five points. If they finish last, only one. The points of both races will define the final Qualifying result and thus the grid of the Semi-Finals and the Crazy Race.
On Sunday, the team that finished Qualifying on top will race the cars in fourth and fifth place in the Semi-Final 1. The two first cars to cross the finish line will move to the Final. The second, third and sixth qualifiers will meet in Semi-Final 2 and fight for the same prize.
Last but not least, the Crazy Race will see a four-car race between the bottom teams of Qualifying. Among them, only the winner will be able to continue to the final of the event.
The two first finishers of each Semi-Final and the winner of the Crazy Race will fight for the overall victory of the X Prix in the Final, which will conclude with the podium ceremony.
Quotes
Carlos Sainz, driver:
"Time just flies so fast. The second season of Extreme E starts this weekend in Saudi Arabia. We have worked really hard and the only thing I can say is that the team is really looking forward to improving the performances of last year. We want this season to be smoother on the reliability side and to showcase all the evolution we have done in this time".
Laia Sanz, driver:
"We are really looking forward to the Desert X Prix. In the last races of 2021, we had the potential for better results than the ones we achieved, but some things that were beyond our control happened and compromised our position. This year we will try to fight for better things. I think we will be stronger. I really hope that I can help the team more this year, having just completed my first Dakar Rally on a car. I really wanted to get started".
Joan Orús, team principal:
"We are thrilled and enthusiastic ahead of the Desert X Prix, which is the perfect opportunity to showcase all the work we have done in these past few months. We really want to show that the team is capable of racing in front and fighting for podium finishes and that we face this new Championship with all the guarantees. This is our second time racing in Saudi Arabia, but we have taken great steps since t
