The 2022 season will bolt into life this weekend in Saudi Arabia. Let’s see what’s changed in the paddock ahead of the sophomore year for the championship.
Teams
The biggest news of last year was that McLaren Racing would join the series in a factory supported effort. They were quick to confirm rallycross ace and stuntman Tanner Foust as their male driver. Former rally and rallycross driver Emma Gilmour completes their lineup having raced 2 rounds of Extreme E last year as a step up reserve driver.
All teams have returned to round 1 though some had question marks over this all the way up until this week. Having finished last in 2021, Xite Energy Racing looked set to pull out before first renewing their sponsorship of the series then confirming their team. JBXE, owned by F1 world champion Jenson Button, only announced they would race in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. Other teams and drivers had already arrived in the desert before they had confirmed their participation and may drop out ahead of the next round in 3 months time.
Drivers
Reigning champions Rosberg X Racing kept Johan Kristofferson but dropped Molly Taylor due to “complex realities that exist within Motorsport.” Instead the team brought in Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky who was the Continental Tire test driver and raced for JBXE in 2021. Taylor has switched with Åhlin-Kottulinsky by taking her seat at Button’s team. She will race alongside Kevin Hansen in what is thought to be a 1 race deal initially.
Veloce Racing have completely changed their line up after last year. Final round debutante Lance Woolridge keeps his seat after the Stephane Sarrazin suffered 2 large accidents in 2021. Christine GZ has replaced double W Series champion Jamie Chadwick with the young Brit now focusing on single seater racing. GZ raced for Xite Energy Racing last year and impressed as the year went on thanks to her off road racing experience.
Xite meanwhile have kept Xite Energy owner Oliver Bennett after having doubts about returning to the cockpit. They have replaced their female driver with Swedish rallycross driver Klara Anderson. Except they would have had she not tested positive for Covid-19 this week. Instead the series’ reserve driver Tamara Molinaro will race for the team this weekend.
The final change sees Mattias Ekstrom step back from Abt Cupra to let in multiple off road champion Nasser Al-Attiyah fresh off the back of a 4th Dakar title. Jutta Kleinschmidt retains her seat having initially been the championship’s reserve driver. Andretti United have retained Timmy Hansen and Catie Munnings, Team X44 keep Sebastian Loeb and Cristina Guiterez. Acciona Sainz still have Carloz Sainz and Laia Sanz while Chip Ganassi retain Kyle LeDuc and Sara Price.
Image Credit: Extreme E
Format
The format has completely changed with the addition of a 10th team. Qualifying is now a head to head battle with 5 cars in each race dicing for position. Finishing order in each race, not time, will give out intermediate points with up to 10 available for 2 qualifying race wins.
The field will then be split into 3 groups based on qualifying points with championship points no longer awarded at this point of the weekend. From there the 2 semi final groups of 3 cars will give 2 berths to the final. The last spot in the final will come from the 4-car crazy race.
In the 5-car final the points will be distributed following the standard FIA format with 25 for the win down to 1 for 10th place. All races will be 2 laps with a driver change between the laps.
The 2022 campaign will again take place over 5 rounds starting in Saudi Arabia this weekend. After a 3 month gap the series will head to Sardinia followed by either Scotland or Senegal. The season is set to round off in South America in Chile then Uruguay.
Feature Image Credit: Extreme E
