Laia Sanz and Fraser McConnell will be the driver line-up of the ACCIONA | SAINZ XE Team for the 2024 Extreme E season, in which the Spanish team will also receive valuable support from Red Bull.
Laia Sanz has been in the team ever since Extreme E’s maiden season in 2021. She has just finished the Dakar Rally in a career-high Top 15 in her 14th appearance in the event. This result is the consequence of the rapid improvement she has shown year after year in Extreme E, where she has established herself as a Championship reference. On two wheels, she is a 14-time trial world champion and a 6-time enduro world champion.
Fraser McConnell, the best Jamaican race driver to date, joins the team aged 25 after racing with X44 in the 2023 Extreme E season. Rallycross has been for a long time his field. He joined the discipline in 2018. In 2019, he was crowned champion of the ARX Rallycross and finished fourth in the FIA World Rallycross RX2 Series. From there, he jumped to the RallyX Nordic Supercar Championship, where he was the runner-up both in 2020 and 2021. In 2022 he made his first appearance in Nitro Rallycross's Group E maiden year with a win in round 4 and a 3rd place finish in the championship. He also won the Nitro Rallycross European Supercar Championship and, at the same time, he joined Extreme E as a reserve driver. He made his first Extreme E race in the last event of that season with JBXE. For 2023, he combined his duties as an official race driver for X44 with the Nitro Rallycross calendar.
There is another big news for the team as ACCIONA | SAINZ XE Team will be partnering up with Red Bull for the all-new season. Carlos Sainz and Red Bull’s relationship is a long-standing and successful one that is desired to be continued in a completely new format and adventure: Extreme E. This commitment with ACCIONA | SAINZ XE Team is the first “toe in the water” for Red Bull in the electric off-road championship.
Sparco will continue as the Technical Partner of the ACCIONA | SAINZ XE Team, supporting the drivers as it has done since 2021.
Extreme E’s fourth season will start in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on the 17th of February.
Quotes:
Laia Sanz, driver:
"I am really happy to continue racing for ACCIONA | SAINZ XE Team and I am really looking forward to starting working with Fraser because I am sure he will bring a lot to us. The team has grown a lot throughout this time and we have grown together. Last year we did a great job, even though we narrowly missed the title, and I am looking forward to continuing down this path. Today we feel like a family, we work really well together, always in sync, and I think it is very positive to continue to keep on improving. For me personally, I am really happy to continue in this team and I am eager to start the season. I think it is the best place to continue learning and fighting for victories."
Fraser McConnell, driver:
"I am so honored to be selected as the male driver for the ACCIONA | SAINZ XE Team this year and I cannot wait to get started at the first event in Saudi Arabia on February 17th and 18th. Receiving the call from Carlos asking me to join the team was such a surreal moment for me because growing up I was such a big fan and still to this day he is such an inspiration. He is also still such a fierce competitor so having that energy within the team is definitely going to help us win races and I am sure I will be able to learn many things from him. I am also very much looking forward to teaming up with Laia who has been so fast the last few seasons and I can feel that we will be a very strong driver pairing and aim to win the championship together."
Carlos Sainz:
"I would like to welcome Fraser to the team. He is a young and ambitious driver. He has the speed and the right attitude to grow even further. I think he will be a very good fit for the team and I am sure he will push to give us plenty of things to be happy about. Of course, I am very happy to have Laia again in the car. She is a really talented driver and she has developed a lot through these years, and she is especially eager to go for it after her great Dakar Rally and how close we were last season to winning the title. Last but not least, a racing team needs people and companies that believe in it, and for this, I would like to thank ACCIONA for its continuous support through the years and also to give the warmest welcome to Red Bull, who joins the project this year. We have an exciting season ahead and we will go for it."
Joan Orús, Team Principal:
"We are really happy to welcome Fraser to the team. His youth and his will to succeed will help us achieve our goals for this season. Of course, having Laia for a fourth season in a row is a luxury. Her experience and her improvement are impressive, as she has shown recently in the Dakar Rally or as we could see throughout 2023 when she established herself as maybe the fastest female driver in Extreme E. With the solid presence of ACCIONA and the arrival of Red Bull to the team, we have the baseline we need to do a great year."
