Extreme E continued to narrow the pace gap between male and female drivers last season, with performance between the two genders closing a further 36.5 percent.
Extreme E’s unique format mandated both male and female drivers at every team, with both sharing seat time equally thanks to a mid-race driver change, making it the only series in the world to provide equal opportunities to male and female drivers at a premier level.
Over the four seasons of the electric off-road series, the gap between the lap times of the male drivers and the female drivers closed by a almost 70 percent – a figure made all the more impressive given that last season was curtailed after four rounds (from a planned 10) in order to facilitate the introduction of Extreme H this year.
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“Our sporting format is more than just a race, it’s a statement,” said Extreme E founder and CEO Alejandro Agag. “By levelling the playing field, Extreme E has demonstrated that the gender gap in performance isn’t a matter of ability, but opportunity and investment.”
Molly Taylor, Extreme E’s most successful female driver in terms of race wins and the Season 1 champion alongside Johan Kristoffersson at Rosberg X Racing, praised the series and its latest findings, saying that, “Extreme E has without a doubt changed the course of my career and I’m confident all the female drivers in the series would say the same thing.”
“We all know how challenging motorsport is, but what Extreme E has proven is that with the right opportunity, exposure, development and investment we can see women reach the top,” she said. “It can be a difficult cycle to break; you need the seat time to prove your potential, but you need results to attract the support needed to access that very seat time. Extreme E put themselves out there and tried something new to force change and it makes me so proud to be one of the drivers to prove the success of this concept.
“We have built some strong momentum and, whilst this doesn’t alleviate the continuing challenges of motorsport, we are making change. It’s pretty special and something I hope motorsport can learn from more broadly.”
When Extreme E began in 2021, the average gap between the male and female drivers stood at 4.5 seconds, while at the time of the 2024 season’s stoppage, the gap was at just 1.1 seconds, representing a 68.64 percent reduction. That came after a 29.76 percent reduction from Season 1 to 2, and an additional improvement of 29.67 percent from Season 2 to 3.
Those figures are calculated across entire seasons, but in first event of the season (rounds 1 and 2 at the Desert X-Prix in Saudi Arabia), Andretti driver Catie Munnings was the third fastest driver overall, and at the penultimate round of the 2024 season, the median time difference between male and females was only 0.61s.
“Extreme E is a Championship that has proven on track against a stopwatch what giving opportunity to drivers can do,” said Munnings. “When Extreme E started, a lot of the females had less experience than their male counterparts in their team. This data proves what opportunity and access to the best engineers and performance resources within top teams can really do for young drivers.”
When it debuts later this year, the hydrogen-powered FIA Extreme H World Cup will continue with its equal gender split of drivers in its teams, providing more opportunity for the gap to be closed further.
“Extreme E’s mixed-gender format is a game-changer, and this data proves just how powerful equal opportunity can be,” said Jenson Button, who competed in the first Extreme E event and backed the JBXE team that competed in the series throughout its four years. “Over four seasons, we’ve seen female drivers close the gap and perform on par with the best in the world, which is an incredible achievement.
“Watching the series’ drivers, both male and female, thrive under this format has been inspiring, and a reminder that talent knows no gender, it just needs the right platform to shine.”
