The 2023 Extreme E season was one to forget for Andretti Altawkilat. Although tipped to be one of the series’ front-running teams, it made just three final appearances all year — taking a podium in two of those — and withdrew from the season finale after a big crash in the penultimate round.
Fast forward to the 2024 campaign, and a lot has changed. Four rounds in, Andretti’s team of Timmy Hansen and Catie Munnings have three podium finishes, plus a Redemption Race win in the season opener in Saudi Arabia. While team principal Roger Griffiths says there are a number of contributing factors to the upturn in performance, he does believe driver lineup consistency has been a key element. Andretti is the only team still with its Season 1 driver lineup intact, and one of just three with the same as last season.
“I think the consistency of our driver lineup is paying off,” he told RACER. “Timmy and Catie are working really well together.
“We’ve not so much focused on testing the Odyssey 21 [Extreme E race vehicle], because I think we know that car well enough, but we have focused more on driver preparation, so getting them ready for a race event — and you don’t necessarily have to be in the Odyssey 21 to do that — and focusing on what type of services we’re going to be racing on.
“That’s really been a confidence builder. It worked super well in the sand in Saudi and then we did something similar going into Scotland. That seems to have paid off.”
While Griffiths says that testing the soon-to-be replaced Odyssey 21 hasn’t been a major focus for Andretti, he points out that the team’s existing understanding of the car is a strong one that has enabled them to be adaptable from one location to the next.
“We really nailed a setup on the car that is kind of a base, with then a range of operating changes that we can make to suit the conditions underfoot,” he said. “In Scotland we had a wet session early on, and then as more cars ran, the drier it got and we were able to evolve our setup as the track dried. Then again overnight, we reset when it was damp again in the morning. We’ve just gotten a bit smarter about that.”
Luck — or a lack of the bad variety — has also played its part.
“The car, for us generally, has been very reliable,” Griffiths said. “But I think the biggest thing is we stayed out of trouble. We’ve not got caught up in incidents as much as others have done.
“If you think back to Saudi last year, we had three rolls in three days, so you’re never going to do well from there. Chile, obviously, we had the huge crash — and I think that was a bit of an eye-opener for both Catie and Timmy.”
With the team now back to being regular podium contenders, the next step is to return to the winners’ ranks. Andretti hasn’t won a round since the first season of Extreme E in 2021, and while it’s one of the in-form teams at the moment, Griffiths isn’t taking the team’s current run for granted, admitting that bringing everything together and winning again is “not straightforward,” especially with current leaders E.ON Next Veloce Racing winning the two most recent rounds.
One way Griffiths believes the team could improve is by getting Munnings more seat time across other categories. While teammate Hansen is driving regularly in World Rallycross, Munnings only has the occasional E1 powerboat race to fall back on outside Extreme E.
“I think we’re going to do a little bit more with Catie just to make sure she’s race ready, race seasoned,” Griffiths said. “Timmy’s just started the rallycross championship, so he’s going to be regularly competing in that. We’re looking at what we can do with Catie just to get her more race mileage.
“Probably Catie’s biggest disadvantage is that her background is rallying as opposed to rallycross — so, single car at a time, not used to cars going door handle to door handle. Obviously, she’s learned through Extreme E about that, but we want to get her out there in front of more competitive people. It doesn’t have to be in a rallycross car. There’s plenty of other off-road racing championships we can put her in to see what we can achieve there.
“It’s all about confidence,” he added. “If we get Catie confident, then she’s as good as Laia (Sanz of Acciona Sainz) or Cristina (Gutierrez of NEOM McLaren) or whatever.
“So that’s the focus. I’d like to see us on another step, or two steps higher up on the podium. But to consistently be on the podium three out the last four races and to have a win in the Redemption Race, I think it’s a pretty strong start — certainly compared to previous seasons.”