NEOM McLaren – Syndication Server

First taste of 4wd has Bird hopeful Formula E will expand its use

Sam Bird was left hungry for more after sampling Formula E’s new four-wheel-drive system during pre-season testing at at the Spanish circuit of Jarama Four-wheel drive will come into play when the Gen 3 Evo machines’ full 350kw power reserve in …

Sam Bird was left hungry for more after sampling Formula E’s new four-wheel-drive system during pre-season testing at at the Spanish circuit of Jarama

Four-wheel drive will come into play when the Gen 3 Evo machines’ full 350kw power reserve in unlocked in qualifying duels and after Attack Mode activation. After a taste of that extra grunt, the NEOM McLaren driver wishes it was the starting point for Formula E rather than being an alternate strategic factor.

“When you are running a four-wheel drive, the car comes alive. It’s so much fun; it’s really cool,” Bird said. “I’d love it to be permanent. I mean, it’d be nice if 350 all-wheel drive was what you run for the racing, and then if we had 450 or 500 kilowatts for qualifying — that would be crazy.

“It’s the way that you can get off corners, absolutely, It’s gonna be massive.”

As for his own team’s prospects, Bird was confident there is “more time for us to show” after a promising start to pre-season testing for NEOM McLaren. For much of the first three days of running, Bird and teammate Taylor Barnard have featured in the top half of the timesheets as they worked through various development items with their new Nissan-powered GEN3 Evo machines during the four-day test.

“I’m impressed with the work that we’ve been able to do,” Bird told RACER. “Obviously, it’s not all about being the quickest — we’re getting through a program that we designed prior to getting here, and so far, very happy with the work we’ve done.”

Both McLarens – as well as the Maserati MSG Racing cars of former McLaren driver Jake Hughes and Stoffel Vandoorne – spent Wednesday afternoon working on race preparation, opting to forgo the full complement of 350kW as they completed longer runs.

“Everything that we’ve done, we’ve done it for a reason,” Bird said. “Again, I’m happy with the work that we’ve done. I can’t say much more about what we were doing in the race runs, obviously, but we’ve crossed the Ts and dotted the Is on that work. And tomorrow we get to do some different work.”

But while Bird and Barnard have racked up lots of trouble-free miles and the data that comes with it, the overall picture remains unclear, with the teams’ own programs being shrouded in secrecy and Formula E’s new Hankook tires providing another new element to get to grips with on top of the refreshed car.

“It’s too early to say,” said Bird. “I think this is a question that would be better asked after three or four races, not day one and a half pre-season. I don’t know where we’re at compared to competitors, because the tire is so peaky that I don’t know who’s used more tires, who’s done more 350 (kW) laps, who’s had a clear track, who hasn’t.

“There’s more time for us to show — I suppose in that way that we have time in the pocket if we want to. And with regards to efficiency, we don’t know yet, because nobody’s showing their hand with that either.”

Bird is one of Formula E’s most experienced drivers with 128 starts and 12 wins, both putting him third overall on those respective lists, but on the other side of the garage is one of the series’ youngest drivers. After starring in a three-race stint while Bird was sidelined by injury last season, Barnard isn’t a rookie in the truest sense of the word, and Bird’s been impressed with his new teammate.

“He did three brilliant races last year when I had an accident in Monaco. He seamlessly slotted into the team,” Bird said of Barnard. “Everybody here really enjoys working with him, as do I. He’s extremely quick, has a wise head on young shoulders and I’m looking forward to having a season or two alongside Taylor.”

In just under a month, the Formula E season kicks off in Sao Paulo. It was the site of Bird’s most recent win, and McLaren’s first, which gives him confidence for a repeat performance.

“I’ve had some decent results in Brazil, obviously,” he said, recalling his last- corner, last-lap pass on Mitch Evans for the victory last season. “I’ve had a third and a win there, so something similar would be nice.”

O’Ward set for IndyCar and Formula E demos in Mexico

Pato O’Ward is set to appear at Formula E’s Mexico City race in January, where he is understood to be driving his Arrow McLaren IndyCar in a demonstration run, as well as sampling NEOM McLaren’s Formula E car. The move is part of a continued effort …

The move is part of a continued effort to increase collaboration across McLaren’s extended racing portfolio, and was teased by Formula E on social media on Monday, and subsequently confirmed by RACER.

O’Ward has been the most notable of McLaren’s roster to branch out across disciplines – others being the team’s former Extreme E drivers Emma Gilmour and Tanner Foust, as well as David Malukas and Tony Kanaan, all of whom have sampled historic sports cars and grand prix cars in demonstrations in recent seasons.

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News of O’Ward’s planned Formula E visit comes after his latest free practice outing for McLaren’s Formula 1 team at last weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix, which took place at the same venue as the Mexico City E-Prix – Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez – although the Formula E uses an alternate track layout to the Formula 1 race.

O’Ward has also expressed an interest in competing in the upcoming NASCAR Cup series race in Mexico City – a sentiment something McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has echoed, with him expressing an interest in seeing the seven-time IndyCar winner competing in the Daytona 500 at some point.

O’Ward made his second F1 free practice appearance in Mexico City last weekend. Steven Tee/Motorsport Images

While IndyCar continues to explore the possibility of a race in Mexico City, nothing is on the immediate horizon. If it were to transpire, Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles stressed to RACER last month that it would be an “NTT IndyCar championship points race” and not as part of a standalone international series, which had been mooted.

Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez was last a part of the American open-wheel picture between 2002-2007, when it hosted the Champ Car World Series.

McLaren’s Formula E driver lineup comprises 12-time race winner Sam Bird and Taylor Barnard, who became both the youngest starter and youngest podium finisher during a stand-in stint last season when he filled in for Bird during a brief injury layoff. The season begins in Sao Paulo, Brazil on December 7.

Hughes gives McLaren Shanghai E-Prix pole by record slim margin

Not content with a front row start at the Monaco Grand Prix with Oscar Piastri or a top-five starts at the Indianapolis 500 with Alexander Rossi and Kyle Larson later today, McLaren began its busiest Sunday of the year claiming pole position for the …

And Jake Hughes did it in style, beating DS Penske’s Stoffel Vandoorne by 0.001s, making it the closest pole margin in Formula E history.

Vandoorne began his lap strongly, going quicker in the first sector, but Hughes began to reel him in in the second. At the end of the lap, a mystified Hughes exclaimed over the radio “Did we get it? That felt awful!” But it was enough to grab pole for the second time this season.

Ahead of the head-to-head Duels final, Hughes topped the second group in the opening part of qualifying, then beat Andretti’s Norman Nato and TAG Heuer Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa.

Vandoorne, second to Nissan’s Oliver Rowland in Group A, defeated Nick Cassidy in his quarterfinal — Cassidy, like Hughes on Saturday, setting the second-quickest time in the quarterfinals but being beaten in the head-to-head — and Mahindra’s Nyck de Vries in the semis. after de Vries had defeated Rowland in his first head-to-head.

Behind the front row of Hughes and Vandoorne, da Costa will line up third on the gird alongside de Vries in his best starting spot of the season so far. The third row of the grid is a Jaguar TCS Racing lockout with Cassidy in fifth and Saturday winner Mitch Evans – beaten by da Costa in the Duels quarterfinals – sixth.

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Andretti’s Norman Nato and Rowland will occupy seventh and eighth on the grid, with Saturday polesitter Jean-Eric Vergne – eliminated in the first part of qualifying after going fifth fastest in Group B – and Maserati MSG’s Maximilian Guenther rounding out the top-10.

Sam Bird will start 11th in the second NEOM McLaren, ahead of Nissan’s Sacha Fenestraz, and two more big names who fell in the group stage, Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein, and Andretti driver Jake Dennis.

Sergio Sette Camara will be the highest-placed ERT driver on the grid in 15th, ahead of Jehan Daruvala (Maserati), Nico Mueller (Abt Cupra), and teammate Dan Ticktum.

Lucas di Grassi (Abt Cupra), Robin Frijns (Envision Racing), Edoardo Mortara (Mahindra), and Sebastien Buemi (Envision) complete the field.

RESULTS

Sam Bird to return for McLaren in Shanghai

NEOM McLaren has confirmed that Sam Bird will return from injury for this weekend’s Shanghai E-Prix. Bird broke a bone in his left hand in a crash during practice for the Monaco E-Prix and subsequently missed the race in the principality, as well as …

NEOM McLaren has confirmed that Sam Bird will return from injury for this weekend’s Shanghai E-Prix.

Bird broke a bone in his left hand in a crash during practice for the Monaco E-Prix and subsequently missed the race in the principality, as well as the two that followed it in Berlin, being replaced by Taylor Barnard for all three. Bird has since undergone successful surgery three weeks ago, and has spent time in McLaren’s simulator in the last week, as well as remaining a part of the team on the ground to support Barnard.

Bird (center) was on-hand in Berlin to offer support for stand-in Barnard (left). Sam Bagnall/Motorsport Images

“We’re very pleased to have Sam back in the car for the Shanghai E-Prix,” said McLaren team principal Ian James. “Sam has shown an impressive dedication to his recovery and, after a successful operation, he has been able to complete his normal simulator sessions.

“As a result, both Sam and the team are confident he is fighting fit for the race in Shanghai. We are looking forward to seeing Sam back on track.”

Bird has enjoyed something of a resurgence in Formula E this year, tasting victory in the Sao Paulo E-Prix in what was his first since 2021 after two winless seasons with Jaguar, and Mclaren’s first in Formula E at all. But by sitting out three races on the bounce, Bird – a Formula E veteran who’s raced in the category since its inception and has the third-most race entries (122) and third-most race wins (12) – has missed almost as many races this season than the previous nine combined, having only sat out four before this season.

Barnard, who became a Formula E record-breaker in his own right while filling in for Bird by being both the youngest starter and youngest point scorer, took a best finish of eighth in the second Berlin race.

Late NEOM McLaren call-up left Barnard ‘no time for nerves’

Imagine: You’re making your debut in a top level racing series – at Monaco – replacing a big-name driver who’s one of the most experienced of all-time, driving for one of the most iconic names in the business. It’s a big moment, one that’ll need a …

Imagine: You’re making your debut in a top level racing series — at Monaco — replacing a big-name driver who’s one of the most experienced of all-time, driving for one of the most iconic names in the business. It’s a big moment, one that’ll need a heck of a lot of preparation.

“It was about 10 minutes before FP2, so it was very last minute,” Taylor Barnard tells RACER of the call he got to make his Formula E debut for NEOM McLaren in place of Sam Bird after the 119-time Formula E starter and 12-time race winner broke his hand in the opening practice of the Monaco E-Prix.

Barnard’s no stranger to Formula E or McLaren. He’s been the team’s nominated reserve all season, and was quickest of all during the rookie-only practice session at the Misano E-Prix in April, so it wasn’t quite the baptism of fire it might seem.

“I’ve been comfortable with the team for a while,” he says. “I’ve been reserve driver for a while so I’ve been to a few races already before. I think that is why I could jump in and do a fairly decent job straight away.

“There was definitely no time for nerves — it was suit on, jump in the car and go,” he adds. “So I think I’m thankful that I had no time to be nervous because that could have changed things a little bit. But it would’ve been nice to have a bit more preparation.

The Formula 2 driver finished 14th, but crucially two spots ahead of highly rated teammate Jake Hughes, who’s been racing for the team since last season. He remained in the seat for the following two races in Berlin, as Bird looked on from the garage while his recovery continued. And that afforded him more of that sought-after preparation time ahead of the trip to the German capital.

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Barnard’s usually a key part of McLaren’s race weekend build-up, but his transition from reserve to race driver, even if it’s only a temporary one, meant that his pre-weekend routine switched up.

“As a reserve driver, I’m the first one in the simulator so I try to get it prepared for the race drivers, and it’s more about figuring things out whereas as a race driver it’s already prepared and you need to actually fill out the sequences,” Barnard explains. “Like quali, what you’re doing in terms of out- and push-laps, you can go through a full free practice run and a full quali run. So it’s a little bit more in detail, whereas as a reserve driver it’s more trying to make sure that your target energy’s more or less in the ballpark and the setup for your quali is more or less in the ballpark. It’s more about bringing things into the window then as a race driver you push the limit.

“There’s a bit of pressure that you have to get it right for the race drivers.”

Barnard showed immediate strength for NEOM McLaren. Andrew Ferraro/Motorsport Images

Barnard admits that he went into Berlin behind more experienced drivers, but was able to progress to a point where he arrived at the Tempelhof Airport track — which was in a new configuration this year — feeling on par with the others.

“I’ve been able to progress with the track conditions and the other drivers at the same rate,” he says. “I progressed at the same rate as everyone else, maybe a bit quicker because I was behind, but I think being in it from the very first lap and progressing at the same rate as everyone makes a difference.”

Barnard was able to qualify ahead of Hughes for the first race of the weekend, a result he describes as “not too bad.” He then progressed from that 14th spot on the grid to take his maiden points finish with 10th — becoming Formula E’s youngest points finisher in the process, the 19-year-old having already broken the record for youngest starter. A slip to 19th in qualifying on Sunday didn’t dampen things, either, as he played the peloton game to perfection to climb up to eighth by the race’s end.

He might’ve been new, but the progress wasn’t entirely unexpected, with Barnard pointing to reigning champion Jake Dennis’ frequent qualifying struggles but stellar race results all season as an example of what can be done.

“I think if you look up and down the grid — like Jake Dennis, if you go a couple of weeks back, he’s at the front, even in Misano he qualified at the back but finished on the podium twice. Everyone’s capable of doing pole and winning the race but you have to have everything go to plan.”

Naturally whenever a young rookie comes into a race series as a stand-in, there’s talk of it being an audition for a more permanent role in the future. Barnard acknowledges that, saying he’s “had this question a couple of times,” but the mature head on this youngster’s shoulders is ensuring he isn’t getting too ahead of himself yet.

“I’m 19 and I’m still building myself as a driver,” he insists. “I’m still working on myself, so whether I want to spend the next 10 years in Formula E or if I want to keep building, I still don’t know, to be honest.

“I’ve still got half a year left in F2 and I honestly don’t know what the plan is for next year. Obviously I hope it’s a high-level race series of some sort, and I’ll do my best in whatever I’m given, but for me to be able to tell you if I see a long future in Formula E or any other series, is difficult to tell at the moment.”

Ekstrom-Gutierrez pairing paying dividends for NEOM McLaren

NEOM McLaren sporting director Gary Paffett says that the team’s new driver pairing of Mattias Ekstrom and Cristina Gutierrez “exceeded expectations” at the Extreme E season opener in Saudi Arabia. The duo – Ekstrom the 2023 runner-up and Gutierrez …

The duo – Ekstrom the 2023 runner-up and Gutierrez the 2022 champion – joined in the off-season as McLaren looked to move on from being underachievers to championship challengers, and Paffet says it was a strong start to the team’s new era.

“My overall feeling from the weekend is really positive,” he told RACER. “We knew what Mattias and Cristina could do from looking from the outside at other teams. Now we’ve got them here, they’ve certainly lived up to and in some ways exceeded expectations.

“They’ve both been incredible in the car – Cristina just with her calmness under immense pressure and her ability to fight so close to people, and the moves that she makes on track. Her racecraft is really good. And Mattias with his creativeness, as always, opens up gaps that you don’t know that are there. They’ve both really done an incredible job.”

While a podium finish on Saturday and a Redemption Race win on Sunday represents a solid return, Paffett admitted that it hadn’t been plain sailing, with the team quietly battling persistent mechanical issues during the event.

“We haven’t had the smoothest of weekends. We’ve had a lot of problems with the car, and we still haven’t got to the bottom of the problem that we have,” he said. “I still don’t think we were at peak performance there with the car, so there was a bit of work to do.”

On Saturday the team grabbed its first podium since last May’s Hydro X Prix in Scotland, thanks to a genius move by Ekstrom who entered the first corner on the opening lap several meters wide, only to use the subsequent momentum to power up the inside in the second phase of the turn. It was a move that Ekstrom had planned in advance, but one that the team didn’t expect to work as well as it did.

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“With Mattias you have someone that looks everywhere,” Paffett said of his former DTM rival. “He doesn’t just look from one waypoint to the next, drive there and look at the next one, he looks at the whole environment and where he can make a difference, where he can find a different line, especially in Turn 1 and things like this.

“I spoke to him after the course walk and it was already in his head; he already knew what he wanted to do. I think the first time he did it in Saturday’s final, it turned out better than he thought it would. We spoke about it and agreed it was worth a go and we were expecting one, maybe two places, and when he came out in the lead it was like, ‘That worked better than we thought.’

“So that’s what Mattias does — he’s creative and that’s going to be really important when you’re fighting against all these really top drivers.”

The team’s subsequent Redemption Race win on Sunday – which it got after missing out on a final berth thanks to a Traction Challenge time result tiebreaker – would have been a somewhat meaningless victory last season, but with it now awarding the same number of points as finishing last in the final, it carries more weight, offering real “redemption.”

“On Sunday we were struggling a lot with performance, so getting the result we did, the win in the Redemption Race, with that being worth extra points now, is key,” said Paffett. “In the final itself, we got the same amount of points as Rosberg, which is really key because they’re obviously going to be championship challengers, so I would say there’s a lot of positives, but I would also say there’s stuff we really need to get on top of if we want to be fighting for a championship. We showed, certainly from Saturday, that we can do that because we can fight with the best.

“It is [crucial] because, like today, we didn’t make the Redemption Race because we were equal on [qualifying] points with Veloce, so it wasn’t a points thing, it was a Traction Challenge pace thing which is sometimes difficult because the circuit changes depending on what heat you’re in, so it’s not always a nice way for it to be decided if you make a final or not. To be in a Redemption Race with a competitive car and to be able to win and get the same points as someone in the final is really important.”

Input of new driver Bird has raised McLaren’s Formula E game – James

NEOM McLaren team principal Ian James feels Sam Bird has had an immediate positive impact on the team following his move from Jaguar ahead of the current ABB Formula E season. Bird is among the most experienced drivers in the history of the …

NEOM McLaren team principal Ian James feels Sam Bird has had an immediate positive impact on the team following his move from Jaguar ahead of the current ABB Formula E season.

Bird is among the most experienced drivers in the history of the all-electric series, having missed only two races since the category began, and that experience has helped the team adjust to the different nuances of racing in Formula E’s third generation of car compared to the previous one, when — in its previous guise as Mercedes’ factory outfit — McLaren claimed two championships.

“Sam’s been incredibly open — [his experience] is part of the reason why we were so keen to bring him onboard into the team as well,” said James. “We transitioned across last year as we started Season 9 – we had Rene (Rast) at the time, who brought experience to the team but had been out of Formula E for a little while, and I think one of the things that we observed was that we’ve had a shift in the way that we need to approach the race from Gen2 to Gen3. This is something that Sam had grasped and got on top of. So very quickly as he came into the team he was able to really communicate that with the engineers.”

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James feels Bird’s knowledge has also helped McLaren’s second-year driver Jake Hughes.

“I think Jake’s benefited from that experience,” James added. “This is something that we always look for in the drivers — you can have drivers that will turn up on the day and be blisteringly quick and incredibly talented, but don’t necessarily become part of the team and work together with the team. I think with both Jake and Sam, they’re both the exact opposite. They’re both very much part of the team and have that passion for moving all of the operation forward.”

Three races into the season, the change is paying dividends as McLaren’s has maintained the strength in single-lap pace it showed last year while its overall race management has also shown signs of improvement.

“If I take a look at our single-lap pace, that’s always been reasonably consistent and consistently strong throughout Season 9,” said James. “We saw that again in Mexico to a certain extent, but actually the race management I think has been, as a result of the input that Sam’s had into the team … we’re already seeing that benefit.

“That collaboration between Jake and Sam and how they integrate with the team as well is going to be absolutely crucial to our success.”

How NEOM McLaren’s new driving duo is doubling down in Extreme E

It still seems odd, doesn’t it, McLaren in off-road racing? And yet this year will be the third that the famously squeaky-clean brand has gone and got its feet – or rather its tires – dirty. The last two years have been OK for the NEOM McLaren …

It still seems odd, doesn’t it, McLaren in off-road racing? And yet this year will be the third that the famously squeaky-clean brand has gone and got its feet — or rather its tires — dirty.

The last two years have been OK for the NEOM McLaren Extreme E team — steady progress, flashes of speed, and a couple of podiums — but now it wants to make that final step. Extreme E’s highest-profile under-achievers have glory on their minds. Of course they do — they are McLaren, after all.

“For sure McLaren did very well,” new signing Cristina Gutierrez tells RACER. “It’s not an easy championship, all the things change each year and it’s sometimes difficult to manage the rules, the car, all the things that can happen, and for sure they are trying everything to win this championship.”

Gutierrez and Ekstrom bring experience in a variety of realms to the McLaren Extreme E program.

Alongside the Season 2 champion will be Mattias Ekstrom, the double DTM and 2016 World Rallycross champion who almost added an Extreme E crown to that list last year.

“I think that all the teams in Extreme E have had, at times, the chance to win races,” he points out. “But the most difficult thing is to keep the car on-pace every single session with changing conditions — you have unlucky starting slots, and there’s always something or someone that will bring their A-game at time. I think with the experience I have and also what Cristina has, I think will be able to bring this.

“Sometimes, to win you need to be in the right flow. It’s easy to see the result afterwards, but on the trip to get to the result, you also have to be very humble and honest with yourself about why you’re winning and why you’re not.”

The drivers are just part of the equation, though, with the tight-knit group McLaren takes to the races just as vital — and Gutierrez is eager to get stuck in with them.

Race prep in Extreme E requires managing “all the details” in some of the most remote locations on Earth. Colin McMaster/Motorsport Images

“The professionalism that they have, all the little details that they manage — every single detail is important for them,” she says. “When you you walk through the door at McLaren you can see the professionalism, all the teamwork.

“When they started in Extreme E I was impressed by the team spirit, the family that they had in Extreme E and for sure when they called me I wanted to have this feeling, the family spirit. I can now say I am now [in] the family and I’m very happy.”

One member of that team is sporting director Gary Paffett. The former driver is very much a known quantity to Ekstrom, who spent years battling with him in DTM — the pair won two titles apiece between 2004 and 2018. But while they might have enjoyed an intense rivalry in the past, nowadays, Ekstrom says, “when it comes to the sporting side, I feel I can trust him 100 percent.”

“Gary was one of my fiercest competitors in DTM — when I saw him in the paddock, it was always like this love-hate relationship,” he says. “But as he wasn’t competing against me [in Extreme E], if you have to know why I’m here, it’s him. It’s exciting to be working with everybody here, but especially him.

“I shouldn’t say it, but he’s one of the few I could accept losing against in my entire career,” he reveals. “I never enjoyed losing against him, but I could accept it, and to have him as the boss during this project is very exciting. To have the chance to work closely with him is something I’m looking forward to.

“The bottom line is I know how much of a winner he is, and I can see that the entire team is doing things very professionally; but in the end you want a good result, so I will try to help them as much as I can.”

The conversation between the three of us so far has centered around the team’s expectations, but it’s only natural that when someone takes a new job, you question what the perks could be, too. Their predecessors Tanner Foust and Emma Gilmour got to sample some legendary McLaren machines like the MP4/2, MP4/6, MP4/14, F1 GTR, and M8D, so have Gutierrez and Ekstrom been putting together their wish lists?

Gutierrez laughs before I even can finish the question.

“Well, for sure it would be a highlight in my life,” she says. “If I can select one, I’d be happy to drive a Formula 1 car. I don’t care about the year — it’s one of the biggest moments in the career of any driver so I hope to have the chance to drive one of them. We will see.”

The prospect of getting a chance to play with the McLaren collection of vintage F1 cars is another side benefit of association with the team. Dominik Wilde photo

Ekstrom previously hasn’t been too fazed about the prospect of sampling a grand prix car, but now as an official McLaren driver, the lure seems to be proving too much to ignore. He, however, is more keen to spend time with fellow motorsport enthusiast — and new boss — Zak Brown.

“I wouldn’t say I’m one of them that wants to jump in the car and drive — I’m not a Formula 1 person, but I’m starting to realize at my age, at one point I want to drive a Formula 1 car, I must admit,” he says. “The only thing I haven’t driven on the planet is an F1 car. I still think there are some things in my life I should learn to explore and maybe that’s something I can ask Zak to put on my wish list for Christmas.

“He has quite a big passion for motorsport, but also rally cars or anything. He’s not a Formula 1 nerd; he’s more of a motorsport nerd. I’m looking forward to seeing his garage, to see his rally cars and just to have a chat with him to see what he thinks about life.”

The job at hand, however, remains the main focus. And it’s not lost on the team that it is racing in one of the most competitive series around.

“For sure we need to build the team and we need to be aligned from the beginning to try to win, because every single team can win in these races,” Gutierrez says. “We are a big team now, for sure, but the other teams are also going to be fast and competitive. In this championship every point is very important, so we should fight from the beginning for each single point.”

Gutierrez speaks from experience, having won the Extreme E title with Sebastien Loeb at Lewis Hamilton’s X44 team in 2022. Ekstrom knows what it takes, too, even if he came up short in the 2023 title fight after an incident for former teammate Laia Sanz on the last lap of the last race of the most recent campaign. The near-miss has only made him more hungry to succeed in his new surroundings.

“I think the day where I go racing and I don’t dream about winning, that’s when I won’t be on the entry list,” he says. “That’s not saying I have to win to be a happy man, because sometimes you can’t control the environment or something happens — or especially in this racing you can have accidents — but I definitely go into this season with the hopes of being competitive in every session, every weekend and will just try to avoid as many mistakes as possible, try to have as clean weekends as possible.

“I think last year, there was evidence that if you do your homework, if you keep pushing and you do all the right things, you will be one of the championship contenders,” he adds. “If we manage to keep the car clean, have no technical issues and we take care with our driving, I would really like to have a championship battle again this year. I also love and get addicted to those hard battles which, in the end, you want to win.

“Last year we had a super-hard battle but we lost and that sucks, but it’s like this. I haven’t won this championship, I still want to win it, and with Cristina I have somebody who has won it and I think she’s better than ever so I don’t see many excuses why we shouldn’t be able to fight for it.”

NEOM McLaren reveals revised Extreme E livery

NEOM McLaren has become the first team to share its livery for the upcoming Extreme E season. The new anthracite and papaya look mirrors that of McLaren’s Formula E team with what McLaren is calling the “NEOM McLaren Electric Racing signature …

NEOM McLaren has become the first team to share its livery for the upcoming Extreme E season.

The new anthracite and papaya look mirrors that of McLaren’s Formula E team with what McLaren is calling the “NEOM McLaren Electric Racing signature linework” and is being unveiled two days after the team showed its livery for the 2024 Formula 1 season.

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“Throughout our time competing in Extreme E, we have continually evolved as a team, and this livery is a reflection of that,” said NEOM McLaren Extreme E Team sporting director Gary Paffett. “I can’t wait to see it race on a wide variety of terrains across the world in 2024.”

McLaren will field an all-new driver lineup for the 2024 Extreme E season after fielding Tanner Foust and Emma Gilmour for the last two seasons, along with Tamara Molinaro and Hedda Hosaas for the final two rounds of the 2023 season in place of Gilmour who sat out due to injury.

Last season McLaren finished eighth out of 10 teams, with a single podium finish in the second half of the Hydro X Prix in Scotland. The team finished the season with back-to-back final appearances in Chile, along with a maiden qualifying heat race win.

The 2024 Extreme E season begins on February 17-18 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The season will then return to Europe in mid-July, remaining in the continent for back-to-back events in Sardinia before heading to the United States for the first time for the finale in Phoenix, Ariz., on Nov. 23-24.

McLaren’s Hughes tops opening Formula E practice in Mexico City

Jake Hughes was fastest in the opening Formula E practice of 2024 in Mexico City, despite bringing the session to an early end with a crash at Turn 1. The NEOM McLaren driver understeered through the first turn before colliding with the outside …

Jake Hughes was fastest in the opening Formula E practice of 2024 in Mexico City, despite bringing the session to an early end with a crash at Turn 1.

The NEOM McLaren driver understeered through the first turn before colliding with the outside wall, however his best time of 1m14.364s, set on his 14th and final lap of the session, was 0.381s quicker than Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein, with Nico Muller of Abt Cupra a further 0.01s back in third.

Envision’s Robin Frijns was fourth quickest, with the reigning champion, Andretti Global’s Jake Dennis, completing the top five.

Antonio Felix da Costa made it two Porsche drivers in the top six, bettering Jaguar’s Mitch Evans, with Nissan duo Sacha Fenestraz and Oliver Rowland, and Andretti’s Norman Nato rounding out the top 10.

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Previous series champions Sebastien Buemi and Jean-Eric Vergne finished the session just outside the top 10. Nick Cassidy — racing for Jaguar for the first time this weekend after matching 2023’s highest win tally driving for Jaguar customer outfit Envision — was mired in the midfield as well.

Another driver making his debut for his new team, NEOM McLaren’s Sam Bird, could only manage the 16th-fastest lap despite his teammate topping the timesheets, while Nyck de Vries, returning to Formula E after his stint in Formula 1, drove his Mahindra to 20th.

Hughes’ late off wasn’t the only red flag incident of the session. Maserati MSG’s Maximilian Guenther ran wide at the final turn early in the session, brushing the wall and coming to a stop at the top of the start-finish straight.

Guenther had already managed to set a time, but it was only good enough for 21st, with his teammate — the only rookie in the field, Jahan Daruvala — in 22nd.

RESULTS