Category: Extreme E

Extreme H, the world’s first hydrogen-powered motorsport competition, will be known as the FIA Extreme H World Cup with the signing of a non-binding agreement between its organizers and the world motorsport governing body.

The series, which is set to debut next year, will replace the battery-electric Extreme E series which ran for the last four years.

“It is a very proud moment for us all as Extreme H becomes the FIA Extreme H World Cup,” said Extreme H founder and CEO Alejandro Agag. “This recognition from motorsport’s governing body is an important stamp of approval and a major step forward in showcasing hydrogen’s potential while aligning with the highest global standards in motorsport.”

Since its debut in 2021, Extreme E focused on highlighting environmental issues, as well as promoting gender equality and inclusion with an even split of male and female participants in each team. They are themes that are set to continue in Extreme H — the male/female driver line-ups will remain, and the series’ switch to hydrogen power will serve as a testbed for clean energy solutions, with the FIA saying it “is confident that Extreme H will inspire further investment in hydrogen infrastructure, critical for a sustainable, low-carbon future.”

“The FIA is committed to supporting initiatives that set new standards for sustainability and equality,” said FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem. “We look forward to the positive impact the FIA Extreme H World Cup will have across motorsport, the automotive industry, and beyond, accelerating the transition to clean energy and fostering an inclusive racing culture.

“The FIA is at the forefront of advancing sustainable technologies. Motorsport must evolve and adapt to remain sustainable, and the adoption of hydrogen fuels is a key part of our future.”

Extreme H will utilize the Pioneer 25, a purpose-built vehicle from French manufacturer Spark. The car has been in development for the last two years, building on lessons learned from the Extreme E Odyssey 21, and has been subject to an intensive test program throughout 2024 already. It entered production recently, with 10 expected to be ready to take part in the FIA Extreme H World Cup next year.

Extreme H testing continued at Fontjoncouse in France last week, with a group of Extreme E’s top drivers, as well as a World Rallycross race winner getting their first taste of the hydrogen-fueled Pioneer 25 set to race next year.

Up to now, testing of the new car has been exclusively carried out by Extreme E podium finisher Hedda Hosaas and two-time Le Mans winner and Pikes Peak record holder Romain Dumas, but among the latest testing contingent was Kevin and Timmy Hansen — both of whom tested the car’s predecessor, Extreme E’s Odyssey 21, early in its gestation.

“It’s crazy to think that five years ago me and my brother were testing the Extreme E car for the first time, in France as well,” said Kevin Hansen. “And here we are, five years later, with the brand-new future of Extreme E, Extreme H, and to see how far this series has come as well, it’s absolutely fantastic.”

The latest testers echoed the positive reaction of the car’s initial testers, with the younger Hansen saying, “It’s really fascinating to try a new part of the future of motorsport. It’s been a really good test so far, trying to feel the development of this new Extreme H car, working with the team to work on every bit of the car, from wipers to the tires — everything we can imagine when you start from scratch with a new car. So it’s super exciting times, and hopefully we can have a great championship next year.”

Hansen’s elder brother, 2019 World RX champion Timmy Hansen was impressed by how far the new car has advanced from its Extreme E predecessor.

“They’ve done fantastic work,” he said. “They have put a lot of effort into improving both on the Extreme E car, but they’ve taken all the learnings from that, improved it, made it wider, longer, improved the suspension, and, of course, the hydrogen system — massively complex in the car — but it’s great to drive.”

To the uninitiated, the Pioneer 25 looks broadly similar to the Odyssey 21, but the car’s increased mass — up from 1,900 kg to 2,200 kg (4,189 lbs to 4,850 lbs) on account of the hydrogen fuel cell and the subsequent improved safety measures that come with it — has been a standout observation.

“There are a lot of similarities, so I do feel kind of at home,” said Timmy Hansen. “Now you sit in the middle of the car, the suspension is working a bit differently, you feel the weight a bit.

“Now you have the hydrogen system as well, so you feel the car is heavier, but overall, you can tell it’s a better car. It’s a better design, and there’s so many more tools for the teams to use to optimize the setup for each track, which will be very interesting.”

But while the mass and size increase might seem like a negative, especially in the context of a racing car, it does bring with it benefits as well.

“It’s a bit of a beast, honestly,” says Catie Munnings, who has been teamed with Timmy Hansen at Andretti since the first season of Extreme E in 2021. “We’re storing hydrogen in the car, so because of that, we’ve got a lot more protection. We’ve got a 15 milimeter steel plate on the roof, we’ve got a lot of side protection and you can see how wide the door is…

“And obviously from the driving side we have to counter that and predict that it’s going to be a bit heavier. But because of that, we’ve got better (suspension) geometry with the car this time. The chassis handles better in the corners.”

Niclas Gronholm, who hasn’t competed in Extreme E, but has eight World RX wins, a trio of top-three championship finishes, and a Nitrocross podium to his name, also pointed out that the increased dimensions of the car brings about a positive driving experience.

“It’s impressive how you can take all the bumps and all the big rocks and jumps,” he noted. “That was a pretty cool experience.

“It was better than I expected in terms of how you can play with the car. Even if it’s a long wheelbase and the car is pretty big, you can still kind of approach it with the similar driving technique that you use in a rally car or rallycross car or whatever smaller race car. So I think from that perspective, it was even better than I thought.”

Much of the focus of the Pioneer 25 so far has, of course, centered around the hydrogen fuel cell technology and the improved driving dynamics, but ultimately it’s still a racing car. And Kevin Hansen says there will be improvements in that regard, too.

“I think, compared to the Extreme E car, this car feels bigger, it feels heavier, but it does feel, for sure, more racy,” he says. “It’s a step forward in the right direction.”

Timmy Hansen added that the new car will encourage teams to work harder, with teams needing to extract the most out of it.

“It’s more stable on the ground; I’m sure we’ll be able to have a great race with this. I think this car will race in a slightly different way,” he said. “There will be a bigger difference between the team that puts in a lot of effort versus the team that doesn’t, because there are more things you’re able to do with this car. And maybe that could lead to one team being strong in one area and another team not.

“There is always fine-tuning in the setup, but that will come later when we’re with the team, to set the car up for each single driver.”

While improving upon the previous generation has been a key focus during the transition from Extreme E to Extreme H, dispelling myths around hydrogen technology is another. And after her first taste of the car, Munnings is entirely onboard.

“The biggest misconception with hydrogen is the safety side,” she said. “But when you see the crash testing that it’s gone through with the FIA, it’s insane.

“I’d say it’s actually one of the safest if not the safest off-road cars out there now. And I think that the testing it has gone through has made it safer than some of the combustion cars out there.”

Gronholm, whose “day job” is racing in a series that pits combustion against electric cars, is excited to see another option being brought to the table.

“It’s positive that we have these alternatives, that it’s not only internal combustion and electric, but there is new technology coming in,” he says. “I’m positive that it’s not only black and white, with only electric and fuel. I’m positive that they’re actually experimenting with how it could work — that’s good.”

Extreme H will be an “an evolution rather than a revolution,” according to the series’ managing director Ali Russell.

The battery-powered Extreme E series will become the world’s first hydrogen-powered racing series next year, with the introduction of the new Pioneer 25 race car. But while a new name and new power source are grabbing headlines, the championship — which has run since 2021 — is regarding it as a continuation of what it’s been doing already rather than an entirely clean slate.

“I like to see this as an evolution rather than a revolution,” Russell told RACER. “We’re not ripping [up] what we’ve got here — this is a really good platform. The teams, the drivers, the locations, the partners, we’ve got an absolutely first-class series here and I think what we’re doing is moving into a parallel mobility solution and I think that allows us to be first.”

The upcoming car — which was tested in race-like conditions for the first time in Scotland — takes on lessons learned over the last four seasons, not just from a technical standpoint, but from a sporting perspective, too.

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“What I like about the hydrogen car is that it is a 2.0,” Russell said. “If you look at generations of development, we’ve been able to take all of the knowledge that we’ve gained — because when we developed the Extreme E car, we didn’t know what teams would be involved, what drivers would be involved, we didn’t know about the equality split in terms of the drivers,.

“If you remember the first race, it was over a much longer course so ultimately we designed a car without knowing where it was going to be racing. This is very different — we know where we’ll be racing, we know the style, we’ve refined it, we’re really really happy with the sporting format. I think multi-car racing is super-exciting.”

Despite the talk of continuation, there is no illusion about the task the series still faces but Russell points to the experience of overcoming Formula E doubters in that series’ early days as something to be inspired by.

“When we started Formula E, everyone thought it was Scalextric [slot cars] — there were concerns over the electrocution of drivers or fires that would start, and also how would people feel about a quiet racing series? It’s now one of the most successful series on the planet, so I think we’ve been able to break down barriers before, as a group of individuals,” he says.

“I think in terms of moving forward, there are concerns. People look at hydrogen and there is a lot of negatives around hydrogen and what we want to do is dispel that and show first of all that it’s a safe platform, and secondly that it has performance, it has better autonomy, and that it can be exciting to watch because if the entertainment is good. We’ll be able to progress so much further in terms of the messages and the innovation that we create through the series.”

The series has made additional steps towards its future beyond testing its new car. Over the Hydro X Prix weekend, 80 percent of the paddock’s power came from green hydrogen. 700kg of green hydrogen produced 11 Megawatt-hours (MWh) of power to support car charging, catering and event control power on-site. That was enough to power 1,000 homes in the UK for a single day, or charge the electric vehicles at the race site — including the race cars and vehicles used to travel to and from the location — more than 350 times.

So far one of the eight current Extreme E teams — SUN Minimeal — has publicly confirmed its commitment to Extreme H, although RACER understands there are others that have already committed. Russell says the expectation is to return to 10 teams next year while there is a provision for that number to increase further.

“Absolutely none of the teams have said that they are out, so all of the teams are interested,” he confirmed. “But of course what they’re going through is a slight change in partners that are interested, so they’re lining up their finances to be involved in the series. We see very much a consistent number of teams, a consistent number of drivers, and actually we’re hoping to bring in more teams, so watch this space.

“We have written into our contract with the teams that we can go up to 12, but we’re producing 10 cars at this moment in time so we’re ready for 10 teams to take the grid next year.”

After more than two years of talk and many testing miles in secret, the Extreme H car finally broke cover last weekend for its first public outing.

The Pioneer 25’s running at the Hydro X Prix in Scotland last weekend was a momentous occasion for a number of reasons. Not only was it the first time the car had taken to a track in public –and in full view of all current teams and drivers — but it was the first time the car had run on a full Extreme E course. It was also the first time it had been properly benchmarked alongside its predecessor — Extreme E’s venerable Odyssey 21 — too.

Talk around the car has already been positive, with it having completed 1,100 miles of running across a number of locations in France in the last year, but there was no hiding Extreme E and Extreme H technical director Mark Grain’s delight at the end of the Scotland race week, where the car ran on both race days, as well as during the days in the build-up.

“I’m very happy,” Grain tells RACER. “It allowed us the opportunity to run the car absolutely alongside the Extreme E cars in the sense that we were using the same course, same weather conditions, we had Alkamel on-site for the telemetry, Aurora TV, everything, so it really gave us that good opportunity to take the car and do all of that work that we can’t do when we’re private testing.

“But of course, it’s the first time that a hydrogen car has run in these conditions — it wasn’t parade laps, it wasn’t just a show for the public, it was out there for a proper development purpose, using all of the Extreme E track and facilities.”

Extreme E podium finisher Hedda Hosaas was tasked with all of the driving in Scotland, as her fellow tester Romain Dumas was busy winning the Goodwood Festival of Speed timed shootout in Ford’s all-electric Supervan 4.2. But not only did she get extra seat time as a result, the success of the test led to it being extended, too.

“It’s been a good week,” she says. “I was able to drive the Pioneer 25 more than planned and there was more seat time as the team extended the program. It’s been good — the team brough new things to test, sometimes bringing new challenges and niggles but that’s what testing is for.

“By the end we were putting in consecutive hard laps — including on proper mud — and the car handled really well. It’s definitely an improvement on the Extreme E car.”

While much of the focus has, understandably, centered around the car’s hydrogen power source, manufacturer Spark has delivered wholesale improvements across the board, something that could clearly be seen trackside as it ran in the same environment as the car it will replace. All-new suspension from Fox means the car is notably better in the corners and on uneven surfaces, while a new central driving position and revised battery — which now sits lower and more centrally in the car’s chassis — have further aided balance and handling.

“You’ve got an Extreme E car turning laps, and then shortly afterwards you’ve got the Extreme H car turning laps,” Grain points out. “So you can see the step in performance and the way the Extreme H car is handling and performing compared to Extreme E.”

“It feels better, especially at low speed where we can gain the most because of the power we have now — I could really feel it,” Hosaas adds. “It felt smooth and fast in the technical slow-speed sections — I was pushing and it gives you a lot of confidence now.

“The visibility’s way better, too. You see more because of the center positioning in the Pioneer 25. This will be great when you’re racing to have that broader vision range.”

Those changes across the board have delivered a substantial step up, and while Grain wouldn’t be drawn on specific lap times, he did confirm it is already a quicker car, despite still being in the relative early days of its gestation.

“It’s better,” Grain says with a big smile. “It’s a faster race car, we’ve seen that in the data, and we were working through a development program and a test program, so it’d be unfair to put a lap time number on it. But the hydrogen car was faster.”

The car ran multiple race distances on the Hydro X Prix track in Scotland, while also running on a separate shorter course at the race site typically earmarked for battery testing. The variation in test tracks, which were both on surfaces different to the previous tests and that are more representative of race conditions, allowed the development team to check off even more items, putting the car through a range of different forces that it could be expected to face across a wildly varied race season.

“The short course [in Scotland] is quite developed so even though it’s short, it’s got a nice combination of corners, so that allowed us to understand braking forces in the slow stuff,” Grain explains. “But then there was a high-speed left-hander which allows for a high degree of lateral G and some of the programs that we were working on and some of the software, the team really benefited from having that different combination of braking forces, accelerating, and the longitudinal and lateral G that we could get out of that short course.”

Still, every box isn’t ticked. Next up for the test team is a trip to Sardinia — widely regarded as Extreme E’s most brutal race site — where it will once again run in race-like conditions, and alongside the Extreme E car across consecutive race weekends.

“We’ll have even more testing days because it’s a back-to-back event,” Hosaas says. “It’s going to be a good one because we have driving on that very fast track compared to Scotland.

“I think it’s a good track to test on because it’s usually the most extreme and has some big jumps. That’s going to be exciting because it is so responsive in those areas. I think it’ll be pretty cool on the big jumps.”

While individual race distances were completed in Scotland more than once, one of the key aims in Sardinia will be to complete a cumulative race weekend of mileage on a championship track at the same time an actual event is taking place.

“We’ve got an extensive program there with two full days on the full course, but we’re also going to make use of the opportunity again to use the shorter course again in Sardinia — that’s already mapped out and we’ve got a run plan arranged for that — and then use the full course,” says Grain. “But we also want to run the car, like we did in Scotland, on the Sunday as well.

“That’s in development — how that can work and whether it’s the first Sunday or the second Sunday — but we are working on that actively, so (there will be) a lot of track activity with the hydrogen car in Sardinia.”

The Extreme H car’s race testing program resumes in the second week of September, where rounds 5-8 of the 2024 Extreme E championship will take place.