Jenson Button the latest big signing for 2021 Extreme E off-road series

January 26, 2021February 2, 2021 Iain Curry 1387 Views

The 2009 Formula One World Champion, Jenson Button, will compete in the Extreme E off-road series’ inaugural season as team owner and driver.

Button’s is the latest big name signing for the all-electric SUV race series – due to start in Saudi Arabia on April 3 – with the Brit set to compete against WRC legends Carlos Sainz and Sebastien Loeb; two-time DTM champ Mattias Ekstrom and 2016 Australian Rally Champion Molly Taylor.

Jenson Button 2021 Extreme E driver and team owner

Button’s JBXE team will challenge teams formed by two familiar faces from his Grand Prix days. Fellow F1 champs Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have also formed teams – X44 and Rosberg Xtreme Racing respectively – although Button’s former rivals won’t be taking the wheel themselves.

Extreme momentum

Having another big name attached to Extreme E shows there’s serious momentum for the five-race FIA-sanctioned championship. The project is led by Formula E founder Alejandro Agag with the aim of highlighting the impact of climate change on some of the world’s most remote locations and promoting the adoption of electric vehicles.

With the single seater Formula E series losing manufacturer teams BMW and Audi for the 2021 season, Extreme E’s big name appeal looks set to give electric racing a much-needed shot in the arm.

The Team X44 team created by Lewis Hamilton to compete in the Extreme E off-road races in 2021 — Lewis Hamilton has created Team X44 to compete in the Extreme E off-road races in 2021

Announcing his new JBXE team, Button – who retired from F1 in 2017 – said: “I caught the off-road bug a few years back which led to me entering my own team in a few races including the Mint 400 and even the Baja 1000.

“In Extreme E they’ve created a product that will offer first class racing and entertainment to the fans, but also serves to highlight the impact of climate change. Whilst we will of course compete to win on track, as a collective we will also work to maximise awareness whilst racing in places that have been damaged or affected by climate change over the years.”

Men and women to race

Each Extreme E team consists of two drivers, one male and one female, sharing driving duties at each round. Button is yet to announce his co-driver, and will do well to match the quality of those already confirmed.

As well as Australian Molly Taylor, Women’s Trial World Champion Laia Sanz and reigning W Series Champion Jamie Chadwick are locked in.

Australian off-road racer Molly Taylor — Australian Molly Taylor will race for Nico Rosberg’s Rosberg Xtreme Racing team

The series spans four continents and five races. It begins with the Desert xPrix in Saudi Arabia, followed by Ocean in Senegal, Arctic in Greenland, Amazon in Brazil and Glacier in Argentina.

Looking not dissimilar to Dakar Rally racers, the Spark Racing Technology-developed Extreme E SUVs – named Odyssey 21 – are battery electric vehicles with 400kW to move the 1650kg mass.

Organisers say they’ll do 0-100km/h in 4.5-seconds and are capable of climbing gradients up to 130 percent. The battery has been produced by Williams Advanced Engineering.

Each team has received one of the identical (bar their liveries) racers and are allowed only 100km of testing ahead of the first round.

Fox Sports has Australian broadcast rights to the Extreme E series.

Iain Curry

A motoring writer and photographer for two decades, Iain started in print magazines in London as editor of Performance BMW and features writer for BMW Car, GT Porsche and 4Drive magazines. His love of motor sport and high performance petrol cars was rudely interrupted in 2011 when he was one of the first journalists to drive BMW's 1 Series ActiveE EV, and has been testing hybrids, PHEVs and EVs for Australian newspapers ever since. Based near Noosa in Queensland, his weekly newspaper articles cover new vehicle reviews and consumer advice, while his photography is regularly seen on the pages of glossy magazines.