Your important information to all-new motorsport sequence

The primary-ever season of a singular, model new motorsport, Excessive E, will get underneath manner dwell on Sky Sports activities this weekend.

Do not know what it is all about? Then learn on — listed below are all the primary questions answered by Sky Sports activities presenter David Garrido.

So, precisely what is that this ‘Excessive E’?

Excessive E is an thrilling new motorsport, racing all-electric SUVs off-road in 5 completely different venues throughout numerous, difficult terrains. These venues are situated in among the most distant locations on earth, they usually’ve been chosen as a result of these locations have been devastated by the results of local weather change.

As such, in addition to the sporting spectacle, Excessive E is intentionally got down to spotlight the destruction of the planet and encourage individuals, corporations and places to take constructive steps in local weather motion. Using electrical autos is a part of the answer, and in addition an opportunity for groups and producers to check and showcase their newest automotive expertise.

This sport is the brainchild of Alejandro Agag, a Spanish businessman beforehand concerned in System 1 with drivers equivalent to Romain Grosjean and who additionally based System E, the all-electric single-seater city-center sequence.

Who’s concerned?

There are 9 groups, every with one female and male driver (gender equality being one other pillar of Excessive E), together with well-known names from many alternative motorsports.

We have now three System 1 world champions as staff house owners — Lewis Hamilton (X44), Nico Rosberg (Rosberg X Racing) and Jenson Button (JBXE) who can be a driver himself.

Additionally among the many driver line-up are former world rally champions Sébastien Loeb who gained 9 straight titles between 2004 and 2012 and twice-winner Carlos Sainz who has three Dakar Rally crowns.

Rallycross is represented primarily by Swedish trio Johan Kristoffersson, Timmy Hansen and Mattias Ekström who between them have gained the final 5 world titles.

As for different British curiosity, Jamie Chadwick is the present W Sequence champion and a growth driver with Williams F1, whereas Catie Munnings lifted the Women Trophy on the European Rally Championship in 2016. The opposite Briton concerned is Oli Bennett, who gained seven out of 9 races within the 2017 British Rallycross Championship.

Behind the scenes, there are additional F1 hyperlinks with McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown as Andretti United’s staff principal, whereas Adrian Newey, Chief Technical Officer at Crimson Bull Racing, and ex-driver Jean-Eric Vergne are each with Veloce Racing.

How does the racing work?

All of the motion takes place over two days. On Saturday all of the groups will do two qualifying runs of the course, with the female and male driver every driving a lap and a changeover (generally known as ‘The Swap’) in between. Every of those runs will whole roughly 18 kilometers, and their mixed instances will produce an order.

From that order, the quickest three groups will undergo to the primary semi-final race on Sunday, the center three groups battle it out in one other semi dubbed the ‘Loopy Race’ and the slowest three groups will race in ‘The Shootout’. From that first semi, the highest two finishers progress by way of to the ultimate, joined by the winner of the Loopy Race. Within the remaining, fairly merely the winner of the race is topped the XPrix winner.

Factors are awarded by inserting, as you go from first (XPrix winner) to ninth place (third finisher in ‘The Shootout’).

There are different distinctive options to boost the racing but additional, equivalent to ‘Hyperdrive’: whoever performs the longest leap on the primary leap of every race is awarded an extra enhance of velocity, and that staff additionally will get an additional championship level.

No followers shall be in situ on the races (to maintain the sequence’ carbon footprint to a minimal), however the ‘Gridplay’ characteristic lets them vote for his or her favourite driver to achieve grid benefit. The staff who receives probably the most votes can choose its grid place for the ultimate, but when they are not in it, they’ll reward their votes to a different staff of their selection. The staff with the second-most votes will get second selection of grid spot, and so forth.

As a part of Excessive E’s sustainability drive, every vote additionally features a micro-payment in direction of the grasp charity / Legacy Programme. (Extra on this later.)

The place are the venues for the races?

Strap yourselves in, that is going to be fairly some world expedition.

There are 5 completely different venues for the races in Excessive E’s inaugural season, all themed round completely different distant places and associated environmental points. They begin in AlUla in Saudi Arabia for the Desert XPrix in early April, then head to Lac Rose in Senegal in late Could for the Ocean XPrix.

Then there is a hole of roughly three months earlier than spherical Three in Greenland on the Russell Glacier close to Kangerlussuaq (Arctic XPrix) on the finish of August, and after that we head south — to Santa Maria, Belterra within the Pará area of Brazil for the Amazon XPrix in October and at last Tierra del Fuego in Argentina for the Glacier XPrix in mid-December.

What is the automobile they’re utilizing?

It is known as the Odyssey 21, and it is basically an outsized electrical buggy. The car is manufactured by Spark Racing Know-how, and there’s System 1 involvement right here too with McLaren offering the drivetrain and Williams the electrical battery, whereas Continental provide the tires. It was unveiled to the general public on the Goodwood Pageant of Velocity in June 2019 after which had an honest run-out on the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia in January 2020, with Ken Block ending third on the ultimate stage within the automobile class. Not a nasty debut.

The very fact it is electrical is not simply vital when it comes to the way in which it is pushed, but additionally primarily its weight. It is a 1,650-kilogramme, 2.3-metre large beast, and but it races as much as 60 miles per hour in simply 4.5 seconds. With 550 brake horsepower, the Odyssey 21 can attain a prime velocity of 120 miles per hour and tackles gradients of as much as 130 per cent.

Very minimal tweaking to the automobiles may be achieved by groups, principally restricted to bodywork, however after all every staff could have their very own particular livery. As an electrical SUV, it’s far quieter than its inner combustion engine petrol or diesel equal, but it surely additionally options on the spot torque and really fast acceleration. The drivers I’ve spoken to have additionally praised its driveability, however one advised me that one of many challenges is solely attempting to get the factor to cease…as a result of its weight.

How will the automobiles’ batteries be charged? They have a super-low-carbon resolution for that as nicely: hydrogen gas cells. This progressive concept from British firm AFC Vitality makes use of water and solar to generate hydrogen energy. Not solely will this course of emit no greenhouse emissions, its solely by-product shall be water, which shall be utilized elsewhere on-site.

Need a enjoyable reality concerning the automobile? After all you do. Right here you go: the saved power within the battery contained in the Odyssey 21 might maintain 2,600 cellphones charged for every week.

How do the automobiles get to the venues?

A-ha! That is one other twist, and maybe one of the crucial vital distinctive promoting factors of the sequence.

They will be transported from venue to venue aboard the RMS St. Helena, a former Royal Mail passenger-cargo vessel which has undergone an intensive refit to rework her into Excessive E’s operations hub.

However transferring the automobiles round is not her solely use. In addition to serving as a ‘floating paddock’, the St. Helena will carry all different tools required to the race places, a 50-person crew and he or she may even home laboratories for scientists to hold out invaluable analysis on local weather change and ocean air pollution and contribute to the championship’s legacy program (extra on that later), and its sustainability trigger.

By selecting the seas over the skies, Excessive E’s carbon footprint when it comes to logistics shall be diminished by two thirds, in comparison with travelling by air freight. And there are different examples too. The ship’s propulsion items and mills run on ultra-low-sulphur diesel, the St. Helena makes use of low-energy LED lights, low-consumption lavatory fittings and even chairs comprised of recycled plastic bottles collected from the Mediterranean Sea. Each little helps.

So, what are these legacy packages you talked about?

Together with environmental consciousness and gender equality, Excessive E additionally needs to make a tangible impression, leaving the venues it can go to in a greater state than the way it discovered them. To that finish, will probably be concerned in native actions in order that it will possibly meaningfully contribute to the rehabilitation of those areas which have been ravaged by local weather change in several methods.

In Saudi Arabia, for the Desert XPrix, they will help the Nice Inexperienced Wall initiative which goals to create a barrier of bushes and protecting landscapes throughout the Sahel-Sahara border and the drivers may even go to an area turtle conservation undertaking. In Senegal, the legacy program will help Marine Protected Areas to attempt to safeguard and revive aquatic range, in addition to working plastic clearing initiatives on the seashore in Dakar, and the drivers shall be serving to to plant mangroves — a million bushes are to be planted throughout 60 hectares.

The identical goes for Greenland the place Excessive E will help the territory’s plans to totally transition to 100% clear power sources and be a part of forces with UNICEF Greenland to teach kids concerning the impacts of local weather change; the Amazon the place they will work with present conservation organizations to guard and replant an space with agroforest, offering crops that may be harvested by locals; and at last the southern tip of Argentina the place the ice is receding at an alarming charge. If that continues, most if not all the cirque glaciers in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego will disappear in the course of the subsequent 20 years, and each valley glaciers and the Patagonian ice sheets shall be severely diminished as nicely.

Okay, I am in. The place can I watch Excessive E?

All periods of all race weekends shall be broadcast dwell on Sky Sports activities Motion and/or Sky Sports activities Combine, kicking off with the primary qualifying session from Saudi Arabia at 7am BST on Saturday, April 3.

On prime of that, Sky will broadcast ‘Electrical Odyssey’, a 20-part epic transglobal journal present sequence concentrating on an environmentally-aware viewers with a ardour for journey, which can assist fill the gaps between the 5 rounds of racing.

This distinctive Excessive E journey is simply beginning, and it is set to be a rare, thrilling and impactful eight months forward, each on and off “observe”.