McLaren to race in Extreme E 2022 as Rosberg X wins again

McLaren Racing will enter a team in the 2022 Extreme E championship, giving further credibility to the all-electric off-road race series.

The big-name entry was announced soon after the Ocean X Prix – the 2021 championship’s second round held in Dakar, Senegal – which saw a second series victory for Rosberg X Racing.

Winning drivers, as in April’s first round, were Johan Kristoffersson and Australia’s Molly Taylor, who won a drama-packed grand final where two of the four cars retired in the early stages. A requirement of Extreme E is each car must feature a male and female driving duo.

YouTube player — 2021 Ocean X Prix finals highlights from Senegal

The race series aims to highlight the impact of climate change, promote the adoption of electric vehicles and provide a “world-first gender-equal motorsport platform.”

Big name entrant

While the Ocean X Prix had talking points aplenty thanks to its spectacular Atlantic Ocean backdrop, high quality driver line-ups and some superb racing, the bigger news long term is securing McLaren Racing as an entry for next season.

Much like the single-seater Formula E race series raised its profile by attracting major manufacturers and legacy racing teams – sometimes at the expense of their entry in long-established race series – McLaren Racing moving into the five-race global Extreme E championship points to the Formula One stalwart’s further diversification in its racing pursuits.

Nico Rosberg, founder and CEO, Rosberg X Racing with Molly Taylor (AUS)/Johan Kristoffersson (SWE) JBXE Extreme-E Team at the Extreme E 2021 Ocean X Prix in Senegal.

With McLaren’s road car arm committing to an electrified future, it makes perfect sense for McLaren Racing to align itself with the hottest new electric race series on the scene.

Formula E’s star is on the wane after high profile withdrawals, and Extreme E with its formidable (and aesthetically-pleasing) race locations, plus its sustainability and diversity agendas, work well with McLaren’s current aims.

If you’ll excuse the rather cold PR speak (those who’ve followed McLaren in F1 will be well acquainted with it) the decision to enter Extreme E followed “a detailed evaluation of the series by McLaren against a set of strategic, economic and operational criteria. These were underpinned by a clear imperative for accelerating McLaren Racing’s own sustainability mission, which places carbon reduction, the recycling, reuse and elimination of waste, and diversity, equality and inclusion at its core.”

Alejandro Agag, CEO of Extreme E, was obviously delighted with McLaren jumping on board, calling the British squad a “powerhouse team” and its inclusion was “a huge endorsement that what we have delivered in just our first two races of Season 1.”

Veloce Racing at the Extreme E 2021 Ocean X Prix in Senegal.

Ocean backdrop

While the inaugural event in the Saudi Arabian desert was compromised with sand and dust blinding competitors following the lead car, the second round in Senegal suffered no such problems. Racing was often excellent in picturesque surrounds with plenty of overtaking and driver skill on show. The vehicles – each looking like hardcore Dakar racers but with a 400kW electric motor – have the rugged good looks to secure wide appeal.

A four-car final was set to offer a thrilling contest, but the Lewis Hamilton-owned X44 car of Cristina Gutiérrez tangled with 2016 Australian Rally Champion Molly Taylor’s Rosberg X Racing car in the fist turn. Before even that, the Jenson Button-owned JBXE racer of Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky had its rear wheel ripped off in a sand bank and was forced to retire.

Molly Taylor held the lead from Stéphane Sarrazin in his Veloce Racing car, but a red flag to clear away damaged cars meant there was a standing start restart for an all or nothing one-lap showdown. Briton Jamie Chadwick took on Johan Kristoffersson after the driver swap, with the Swede taking the chequered flag almost 15-seconds ahead, to land his and Taylor’s second consecutive Extreme E win.

JBXE Extreme-E Team at the Extreme E 2021 Ocean X Prix in Senegal.

The gap between each Extreme E round loses some of the event’s momentum. The next race is in Greenland – the Arctic X Prix – on August 28-29, some three months after the Ocean X Prix. Once again, the extreme setting for racing will bring huge appeal.

All the races from each round are live on YouTube, except, disappointingly, the final. Subscription service Fox Sports/Kayo has exclusive rights to that in Australia.

As McLaren is locked in for 2022, it has us thinking which other car manufacturers or race teams on an electrification drive could potentially also sign up for next year. Extreme E’s a darn sight cheaper that the cost of turning up and getting trounced on an F1 or Le Mans 24 Hour grid.

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.