The Carl Cox Motorsport name will be absent from the Extreme E field this year, but the team has already confirmed its intentions to return for Extreme H in 2025. The superstar DJ lent his name to the electric off-road series’ final team last …
The Carl Cox Motorsport name will be absent from the Extreme E field this year, but the team has already confirmed its intentions to return for Extreme H in 2025.
The superstar DJ lent his name to the electric off-road series’ final team last season, taking over the entry formerly known as XITE Energy Racing, and fielded Timo Scheider, as well as Christine Giampaoli Zonca and Lia Block, the latter taking the female driver seat from round five in Sardinia until the end of the season.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=5858]
“I like to think that I have a pioneering spirit. From music to motors, I’ve always pushed myself to open doors and then go through them,” said Cox. “Being invited to bring Carl Cox Motorsport into the highly-anticipated Extreme H series that launches in 2025 feels like a leap into the future. We’ll be working closely with the Extreme E family over the next 12 months as we prepare to launch our championship campaign in the ground-breaking new car. We are most definitely in it to win it.”
Scheider and GZ took a podium finish in the first part of the Hydro X Prix in Scotland, while the team also took a Redemption Race win in the penultimate round of the 2023 season in Chile.
“It has been great to welcome Carl and his team into Extreme E – his enthusiasm for motorsport is infectious and he has really enjoyed being a part of the championship as much as we have enjoyed him being with us,” said Extreme E founder and CEO Alejandro Agag. “Carl will be following Extreme E closely this season as Carl Cox Motorsport concentrates on 2025, working closely with us for the momentous launch of Extreme H and the exciting new future for our series.”
RACER understands one more entry is set to be announced for the 2024 Extreme E season, setting the field at eight entries with the championship kicking off next week in Saudi Arabia.
Just one season of Extreme E remains in its current form. The 2024 campaign will be the swansong for the battery-electric Odyssey 21 before its successor, the as-yet-unnamed Extreme H hydrogen fuel cell car, will arrive. The transition to hydrogen …
Just one season of Extreme E remains in its current form. The 2024 campaign will be the swansong for the battery-electric Odyssey 21 before its successor, the as-yet-unnamed Extreme H hydrogen fuel cell car, will arrive.
The transition to hydrogen isn’t straightforward. There isn’t a hydrogen-powered motorsport series in existence yet, so while Extreme H has been developing a new car, the series has also been collaborating with the FIA to create new rules and safety standards for hydrogen racing.
“[It’s] very similar to all the work that’s been done in Formula 1 for many years, and of course, cascaded down to all the different championships,” Extreme E technical director Mark Grain says, speaking to media including RACER at the recent season finale in Chile. “We’re doing that work for the very first time, with it being the first hydrogen car. We’re looking at side impacts, low impacts, and impacts from the top. The chassis has been designed so the metallic element of the chassis is much more robust in that area.”
“They are still being defined in conjunction with the FIA, and they’re bolt-on parts. Again, something similar to what you’ve seen in different categories of racing. So they’ll go bolted on to the side, and they’re replaceable as well. There’s been good, solid consideration for those elements, and collaboration.”
Working out how to build and race hydrogen vehicles is one of several challenges Extreme H will face. Another is the safety stigma. It’s something the series’ managing director Ali Russell is well-versed in, having dealt with similar outside doubts during Formula E’s gestation period.
“There’s hydrogen cars in existence, but this is going to be a championship devoted to hydrogen. Hydrogen can be one of the solutions, not just for e-mobility, but actually for power, and green power,” he says. “So I think we’ve got a responsibility, we’ve got a North Star, and what we want to do is to accelerate that growth in that adoption.
“We’ve got some challenges, and the biggest one is the education system, because anytime you speak to someone about hydrogen, they talk about the explosive nature of hydrogen, and the Hindenburg and the connotations. What we’ve got to do is break that down, we’ve got to show the performance of the vehicles, but also the fact that they can be so resilient with some of the crashes that you have in this championship and multi-car championships.”
Working out how the hydrogen cars will be fueled is a key consideration as well. The paddock setup will obviously be the first of its kind, but could have legitimate real-world relevance, too.
“There’s going to be a bespoke setup in the paddock,” Grain says. “We anticipate two refueling stations, and a line of cars that will come, refuel, move, next.
“It gives us a platform to demonstrate that hydrogen refueling is very run of the mill, very straightforward. We would just have the two fueling stations out the back, which is just like a gas station these days.”
Hydrogen fuel cells could also open up the possibility of mid-race refueling, explains Russell.
“I think the challenge we’re going to have is, how do we evolve as a championship? Because obviously, what hydrogen allows us to do is to have refueling, in-race refueling,” he says. “So do you stop and do the [driver] switch and do refueling? Do you have another [stop]? How do we do that?”
While a lot of focus has, understandably, been placed on the car’s switch to hydrogen power, the evolution doesn’t end there. The new vehicle will be almost entirely new, benefiting from lessons learned in the first three (soon to be four) seasons of Extreme E racing, particularly with regard to suspension – something that underwent extensive development with the help of Fox, which came onboard during Season 2.
“The three years of [data] that we’ve got now in Extreme E, they’ve not been forgotten, They’ve been considered,” Grain says. “Spark have done an excellent job moving forward with the H car and the revised suspension geometry. They’ve worked with some technical partners in the U.S. who are experts in off-road racing as well, Baja, and so on, so [we] definitely expect improvements in the experience for the driver, geometry improvements, different damper ranges, spring ranges and so on.”
The battery technology, which will serve as a ‘buffer battery’ to temporarily store the energy produced by the fuel cell until it’s needed by the motors, will be carried over from the Extreme E cars, though. It won’t be a direct port, however, with WAE working to repackage it into something smaller and more efficient.
“They’ve done a fantastic job of repackaging technology that they’ve got,” Grain says. “So rather than being a cube, it’s more of a rectangle. All that technology is carried over, [but] there’s no compromises with having to accommodate the hydrogen fuel cell.”
With revised approaches to bodywork and suspension, sights like this could be a thing of the past in Extreme H. Colin McMaster/Motorsport Images
Bodywork will change, and dramatically – from the large and costly components of the current car, to smaller pieces that will cut down on the vast amount of cosmetic damage the Odyssey 21 is susceptible to.
“The principles behind the large components on the Extreme E car were serviceability, so if you took a large component off, you can immediately get in work on it,” Grain explains. “What we need from our H car moving forward is bodywork that’s more modular. Smaller components, smaller sections, that could be replaced quickly; some components that are forgiving, like deformable structures around the wheel arches, for example.
“Should there be some contact, instead of breaking the piece, and then having maybe a large piece we’ve got to scrap off – even if it’s made from green material – you can see how that starts to erode the principle behind what we were trying to achieve there. So there’s going to be a lot more modular body work that’s much easier to swap smaller components out, as we now understand more about what type of racing we want.”
That type of racing has been intense, especially this season with single-car qualifying runs axed and teams running in six multi-car races over a weekend. But far from wanting to tone things down, Grain says, “we actually want the racing to be more intense”.
“We want the race cars to be faster, [have] more performance. We took some key metrics and targets from Extreme E and we set those as our absolute – we do not want to be below that. So when we’re talking about top speeds, power outputs, acceleration, and so on, that was our base minimum. In Extreme H, we want to surpass all of those.”
In terms of performance, as a starting point, the Extreme H car will be similar to the Extreme E car, despite its higher weight. It’s already meeting those benchmarks in testing, but the wholesale changes to the rest of the car outside of its propulsion system mean that performance improvements will follow naturally.
“We are capped in Extreme E, because of power delivery and angles of droop, so we limit that power delivery in Extreme E artificially – the car could run more power but we cap it,” Grain reveals. “In Extreme H, those compromises with suspension geometry have all been ironed out. So we will have a more powerful car. We believe we will easily compensate for that extra mass with the power and torque that’s going to be available.”
Of course, the introduction of a new car and new technologies will inevitably bring up concerns about costs. Extreme E in its current form is among the lower-cost top-level series, with sources indicating that budgets for a full season are in the region of $2-3 million. Russell suggests that budgets will remain in the same ballpark.
“If you look at something like IndyCar, NASCAR, Formula E, they’re $20-30 million to run the teams in those championships,” he says. “What we want to be is a low-cost option, but with the focus around the development of hydrogen technology, specifically around the fuel cell.”
Series founder and CEO Alejandro Agag says that after a year or two the rules could be opened up to allow fuel cell development, something that could lead to a slight increase in costs, but it won’t be anything insurmountable, and perhaps not even worthwhile.
Extreme H won’t tone down Extreme E’s intense racing. Charly Lopez/Motorsport Images
“It will make it a little bit, but not that much, because they will already have the fuel cell developed for other uses,” Agag insists. “So I think it will increase the cost, but the base car – or the customer car, if you want to call it that – will be ours. The one we’ll provide with Spark that will be available, and cheap.
“If they want to increase, I don’t think the gains on performance can be so huge,” he says, suggesting that the only real benefit would be brand recognition that could come from using in-house tech.
After initial systems tests since the summer, this week the first full Extreme H prototype undertook its first shakedown. It marked a first major milestone for the car, which will be tested further in the first half of 2024.
“We’re up and running, we’re not this ethereal thing,” Grain says. “We’ve got a real car and it runs. We’ve got an extensive test program planned for Q1 and Q2 of next year.”
Russell adds that next season’s Extreme E calendar will also tie into that testing program, with a European-focused schedule that will allow testing and races to run in parallel.
“What you’ll see is [that] next season is very much about transition,” he says. “So what that means is we are really going to be focusing on a lot of European locations, because what we want to do as well is test the H cars.”
Extreme H’s 2025 arrival is very much on course, keeping to a timeline that other proposed hydrogen motorsport projects haven’t been able to.
“We’re going have the first, and I think for quite a while the only pure hydrogen World Championship racing,” says Agag. “I think all the other plans with hydrogen everywhere are very delayed. You’ve also seen Le Mans, they were going to do a car but delayed it.
“Our car is running, we’ve been doing all the tests in France, we’re going to test for another three months, but everything is up and running. Everything is going good performance-wise, to reliability-wise, and safety-wise.
“So we’ll start making the cars and we will have a hydrogen car race in February 2025.”
The FIA, Formula 1 and Extreme H – the championship currently known as Extreme E – have joined forces to establish a joint Hydrogen Working Group. The group will monitor the progress of the development of hydrogen technology, namely fuel cells and …
The FIA, Formula 1 and Extreme H — the championship currently known as Extreme E — have joined forces to establish a joint Hydrogen Working Group.
The group will monitor the progress of the development of hydrogen technology, namely fuel cells and battery systems for vehicle applications in motorsport and wider mobility, as well as race site infrastructure, transportation, charging, storage and management, and all safety implications.
Forming the group will be representatives from all three organizations, Extreme E technical director Mark Grain, F1’s chief technical officer Pat Symonds and Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA single-seater director.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=5858]
“Our sport has a tradition of bringing new technologies to the forefront of public perception in incredibly short timescales,” said Symonds. “We do this by being open-minded to all solutions and embracing cross-functional engineering. With climate change mitigation at the forefront of everyone’s mind we are committed to promoting sustainability and therefore need to explore all areas of decarbonization of the mobility sector.
“This must include sustainable liquid hydrocarbon fuels, electrification and hydrogen. This Working Group enables a collaboration which will allow us to gain first-hand experience and contribute to the understanding and development of the many aspects of hydrogen propulsion that Extreme H will embrace.”
Tombazis added: “As the governing body for both the FIA Formula 1 World Championship and the upcoming FIA Extreme H Championship in 2025, we welcome this latest collaboration.
“The FIA Technical Department has experience and knowhow in the area of hydrogen technology which we will bring to the Working Group along with sporting, safety and regulatory expertise. As is currently the case across the entire FIA motorsport portfolio, we will take learnings from this collaboration for the benefit of our sport and mobility.”
“It’s a privilege to be working alongside Formula 1 and the FIA as we continue to develop our world-first hydrogen racing proposition,” said Grain, who is leading the development of Extreme H’s next-generation race car as it transitions to becoming the first fully hydrogen-powered motorsport series. “Our transition to Extreme H makes us the pioneers and first-ever testbed of hydrogen technology in motorsport — not only in our racing cars, but also transportation, infrastructure, refueling processes and safety regulations.
“It’s a ground-breaking initiative and we look forward to collaborating with Formula 1 and Pat [Symonds] both technically and operationally, as we continue to champion new technologies and break boundaries on behalf of motorsport, with hydrogen at the forefront.”
The formation of the Working Group, however, will not spell an imminent move to hydrogen fuel cells for F1, primarily because Formula E holds exclusive rights to create a hydrogen fuel cell single-seater series. However, there could be other benefits from Extreme E’s ongoing work that could benefit F1.
“We’re already a long way down the road with already a long way down the road with helping FIA to understand the requirements of hydrogen, but then also how we transport hydrogen,” Grain told media including RACER at last weekend’s Copper X Prix in Chile. “How we power the paddock, for example — that might be something that Formula 1 could look to move into in the future.
“I predict their plans, but we do that in harshest environments, they’ve got the benefit of tarmac and all of that easy stuff. So, that will be another opportunity, to come and look at how we run our paddock and the infrastructure that they could carry over into that world.”
Speaking of the idea behind the formation of the group, Extreme H founder and CEO Alejandro Agag said that uncertainty surrounding the best direction of the future of motorsport was a key reason for establishing a link between the burgeoning series and F1.
“My idea, or my pitch to Formula 1 was to say, listen, you don’t know which technology is going to be the one — no one knows,” he said. “For the moment they are betting on synthetic fuels, which is fine, but hydrogen is going to be one technology that could be the future, part of the equation. So why don’t we do a group in which basically, you keep an eye on it?
“So that is all that it is; there is no more, there is no less. It’s for Formula 1 to be able to keep an eye on what’s going to happen here. And what’s gonna happen here is we’re going to have the first — and I think for quite a while — the only pure hydrogen world championship racing.”
But as well as the obvious technical benefits of the collaboration, Agag suggests that Extreme E and Extreme H teams — of which several already have links to Formula 1 such as McLaren, and teams owned by the likes of F1 champions Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, and potential F1 entrant Andretti — could benefit commercially from the association.
“That’s also one of the really interesting angles of this partnership is to open commercial opportunities for our teams,” said Agag. “Some of our teams are doing OK, some of our teams are doing so-so, but to give them this unique selling point — and also for the championship itself — to have a unique selling point of hydrogen is very important. But to have the link with Formula 1 is commercially very important because there is no motorsport organization commercially stronger than Formula 1.”
Extreme H, the first ever hydrogen-powered off-road racing championship, will host its first season in 2025, following the signing of a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding between the FIA and series organizers. What’s more, Extreme H will become …
Extreme H, the first ever hydrogen-powered off-road racing championship, will host its first season in 2025, following the signing of a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding between the FIA and series organizers.
What’s more, Extreme H will become a full world championship from 2026, joining Formula 1, the World Endurance Championship, the World Rally Championship, the World Rallycross championship, World Rally Raid Championship, Formula E, and the Karting World Championship as officially recognized FIA world championship series.
[lawrence-related id=325395]
“We are excited to continue working with Extreme E on their journey to becoming an FIA World Championship. Using sustainable power sources in motorsport is the key objective of the FIA and part of our long-term strategy, and this series is an ideal showcase for that,” said FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem. “Hydrogen is an important part of that mix, and we have developed a set of safety regulations for hydrogen-powered vehicles which is part of the FIA’s International Sporting Code.
“It is encouraging that such a major motorsport entity as Extreme E with its renowned lineup of teams sees the same potential in hydrogen technology. Their approach to equality and diversity matches ours as we push to make motorsport accessible for all.
“Motorsport competition serves as an excellent research and development platform and this new series has great potential. Having the technology tested in the harsh environment of off-road racing in all types of conditions should benefit the whole industry, and in the longer term make mobility more environmentally friendly for everyday users of the road. We are looking forward to working with Extreme E, sharing our know-how and expertise.”
Extreme H’s precursor, Extreme E, will also become an FIA-recognized series. Colin McMaster/Motorsport Images
Ahead of Extreme H’s arrival, Extreme E, the electric off-road series which has run since 2021, will become an FIA-recognized series from 2024.
“Establishing alongside the FIA a world-first hydrogen racing world championship will be a momentous milestone for Extreme E and the new Extreme H series,” said Extreme E and Extreme H founder Alejandro Agag. “Eventual accreditation as an FIA championship and then an FIA world championship means we would be amongst the top tier of global motorsport categories, and Extreme H would be the first-ever world championship racing series of its kind.
“What started as a conversation many years ago about racing in extreme environments, showcasing the incredible performance and innovation of E-SUVs, has now demonstrated enormous growth and further pioneering technical advances as we move forward with the transition to hydrogen and Extreme H — a world-first.”
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=5858]
Extreme E’s plans to branch out and create the first exclusively hydrogen-powered motorsport series were first announced in February 2022, with testing of the first prototype vehicles for the championship taking place this summer. It is the latest in a string of groundbreaking series to come from Agag, whose credits also include Formula E and the upcoming E1 electric powerboat racing series.
“This announcement is a significant first step in the development of our championship and our ground-breaking transition to hydrogen-powered racing,” he said. “Sport is the most powerful and effective platform to drive innovation and our commitment to delivering sustainable motorsport championships full of excitement and with a reduced carbon footprint are testament to that.
“Once it achieves FIA world championship status, Extreme H will continue what Extreme E started as a pioneering motorsport series and we look forward to delivering another spectacular sporting product.”
Extreme E is still working on plans for the full hydrogen-fueled championship it initially announced at the 2022 season opener. Since then it has been working on a prototype vehicle, and that is still on target to begin testing this summer. But …
Extreme E is still working on plans for the full hydrogen-fueled championship it initially announced at the 2022 season opener. Since then it has been working on a prototype vehicle, and that is still on target to begin testing this summer.
But while that timeline has remained on course, what is less clear is what the “Extreme H” project means for the series as a whole. Initially the plan was for the hydrogen class and the current battery-electric class to co-exist, but given the lack of prominent hydrogen racing series, Extreme E and Formula E series founder Alejandro Agag has suggested the new development could become the championship’s sole focus.
“We’re using fuel cells and I think it’s really relevant to create a platform for motorsport and hydrogen — there isn’t really motorsport with hydrogen,” he told select media including RACER at the recent Desert X Prix in Saudi Arabia. “There’s been some attempts — Le Mans, Dakar with a truck and so on — but I think the format is not the right one. Our format is the right one to test hydrogen. I think short races like the ones Extreme E does will be the perfect format for hydrogen.”
“We still need to figure it out,” he conceded. “We haven’t decided yet if we’re going to do both, if we’re going to focus on hydrogen, if we’re going to transition — both and then hydrogen only. We have ongoing discussions with the teams and then we will make a decision which way to go. They could even be different weekends.
“My feeling is that we will focus mainly on hydrogen. But we have to still make the decision.”
Battery-electric powered Extreme E launched its third season last weekend in Saudi Arabia. Sam Bagnall/Motorsport Images
Extreme E’s sister series Formula E has just introduced its third-generation race car, the two before it each lasting for four years before being replaced. With Extreme E having just entered its third season — one that will be twice as long as those before in terms of championship rounds — naturally talk has already started regarding a Gen2 Extreme E racer.
Agag says the introduction of that will coincide with the introduction of a hydrogen vehicle, regardless of what form that will take, but ultimately the timeline might not need to match that of Formula E’s car development.
“I think the Gen2 will be the hydrogen cars,” Agag says. “Then, we may decide to do another battery.
“The thing is, with Formula E we needed to develop along the generations because in the first generation the cars couldn’t finish the race — we needed two cars. Then with Generation 2 we finished the races but the cars were quite big. Then Generation 3 finally we finished the race with a smaller car. Then we’re going to do ultra-fast charging next year.
“In Extreme E these cars are perfectly capable of racing as much as we want. For our format, these cars are perfect.”
Another question mark is whether the cars will take the form of hydrogen electric, or hydrogen combustion.
“We need to explore hydrogen combustion,” Agag insisted. “Fuel cells have an advantage with absolutely zero emissions, Combustion of hydrogen has certain emissions.
“We have to analyze exactly how much the emissions are, NOx for sure. But they have certain advantages: for example, combustion makes noise. Some people find that obviously exciting for motorsport.”
If Extreme E (or Extreme H) chooses to not go down the hydrogen combustion route, Agag says it could be a viable alternative for Formula 1 instead of e-fuels. While F1 is already exploring the use of e-fuels as it looks to become carbon neutral by 2030, he points out they come with their own pitfalls.
“I think they will continue to be combustion. I think maybe e-fuels, but e-fuels, for me, is a technology that’s very niche and Formula 1, for me, shouldn’t be niche,” he says. “It should be technology that can be deployed for mass adoption and e-fuels, even the price of the fuels is going to be, in my opinion, for some sports cars or special situations.
“Combustion of hydrogen could be the future for Formula 1, so having the testbed of combustion of hydrogen will be very important, but the technology’s not ready yet. E-fuels release CO2, the same amount of CO2 as gasoline, but in theory, you have (already) captured that CO2 to make the e-fuel. You have captured the CO2, that’s why it’s neutral.
“But it has some issues. In theory, the oil comes from forests that millions of years ago absorbed CO2 that you are releasing back into the atmosphere, so in theory it’s also carbon neutral.”
Watch this space… Sam Bloxham/Motorsport Images
As well as the racing cars themselves Extreme E’s St. Helena, the ship which it uses to transport the entire series infrastructure around the world, could also be powered by hydrogen. Currently the ship’s livery features the phrase “Not electric… yet” but Agag admits it will remain that way for some time.
“The only possibility — I need a little more money for this — is hydrogen, actually. Because battery powered, the whole ship would be a battery, 90% of the volume of the ship would be a battery,” he explains. “Hydrogen technology is the one that can power ships, so we’re talking with some partners about exploring that possibility.
“But I don’t know if we can retrofit St. Helena — we would maybe have to make a whole new ship with a huge carbon footprint to make a ship, so that’s kind of where the balance is. But we don’t give up — let’s see. It’ll say ‘Not electric… yet!’ for a while.”
