ACCIONA | SAINZ XE Team races this weekend in the maiden event of Extreme E, the revolutionary off-road electric championship that promotes electromobility, sustainability and gender equality. This racing series is founded by the same team that created Formula E and will raise awareness on the dangers of climate change in five locations affected by it. The Desert X Prix takes place on the 3rd and the 4th of April in Al-'Ula, Saudi Arabia.
The race drivers of ASXE Team are Carlos Sainz, two-time rallying world champion and three-time Dakar winner, and Laia Sanz, thirteen-time Trial world champion and five-time Enduro world champion. She has also won eleven times the Female class of the Dakar Rally in motorbikes in eleven appearances between 2011 and 2021. For both of them and for the team as a whole, Extreme E represents a whole new challenge in their careers.
Extreme E is both an international championship and a commitment to the environment, therefore the racing series participates in environmental initiatives in the different locations of the race calendar. In Saudi Arabia, the project in question is the Ba’a Foundation, which preserves the habitat of the turtles of the Red Sea through bench fencing and beach management to try and make them suitable for turtle nesting and successful egg hatching. This Wednesday, Carlos and Laia cleaned one beach together with the rest of the grid.
The team arrives to Saudi Arabia feeling confident and with the experience of the collective test that was held last December, where both the drivers and the technicians got to discover the Odyssey 21 –this is the name of the car– and started to get acquainted with a competition unlike anything else in the international racing scene. Adapting fast to the track will be one of the keys of the weekend given that track-time will be very limited.
The track will be between eight and ten kilometres long, and it will include three canyons where the driving skills of Carlos Sainz and Laia Sanz can make the difference. Before the start of the X Prix, the drivers will do a track walk to discover the place in person.
The drivers will arrive aboard the St. Helena, the ship that carries all the material of the competition and a team of scientists that will ensure the compliance of the environmental objectives set by the promoters of the series.
Quotes
Carlos Sainz, driver:
"I am really looking forward to the first weekend of Extreme E, in which we will be facing all the unknown factors surrounding this new kind of racing and this new off-road electric vehicle. I really want to get on top of all the details of this new competition and I am eager to see how the first weekend of racing unfolds. I am curious to see the track of the Desert X Prix in person. I hope that on Thursday we are able to do a track walk to get to discover it first-hand".
Laia Sanz, driver:
"I really want to get started and find out how the Desert X Prix is going to be like. We boarded the St. Helena a few days ago, but I am really looking forward to the weekend to drive the car in race conditions. We will have to push from the very beginning because we will only be able to do a track walk and then it will be the shakedown, which should be one lap. It will be very important that we find the rhythm quickly because the competition will start very soon. We want to do our best".
Albert Fàbrega, team principal:
"We are very happy and eager to start the first race of Extreme E. The location where the event will take place is spectacular and we are already looking forward to racing with this car. We know that the challenge is very big and that it is both the first race of a new championship and a new kind of racing, but we trust the experience that Carlos and Laia have in the desert, which is a terrain they both know very well. It is the first step of a spectacular adventure and we are not only hoping to experience great racing success but also to do our part in the global recovery of the environment. One of the objectives of our team racing in Extreme E is to raise awareness on the importance of fighting climate change".
