With Extreme E’s NEOM Island X Prix double-header on the horizon next week, the electric off-road series is excited to reveal a thrilling course that brings the 10 teams and 20 world-class drivers to the shores of Sardinia for its first ever back-to-back race format.
The Mediterranean island will present tough challenges for both the drivers and the ODYSSEY 21. In the midst of a hot Italian summer, which has already seen record high temperatures in the region.
Inland from the coastal town of Porto Pino on Sardinia’s southwest coast, the undulating course sits within the Capo Teulada training area. The elevation change is less dramatic than other locations that the series has raced at with a relatively modest change of 28 metres, but the rutted terrain will provide the toughest challenge.
The start of the course provides a unique opportunity for the drivers, with a multi-lane section offering very different approaches before the cars rejoin and resume battle. Doing their homework on the course will form a crucial part of team preparation, as the optimal combination of speed and distance could prove elusive.
Having rejoined the main course, the drivers will take a sharp left and traverse a more open, but bumpy plain. Another left followed by a right will take the all-electric SUVs over one of the small inland hills, before a fast, downhill section leads them into the first of two water splashes.
Small trees and bushes form the scenery of the next section of the course, which the cars will carve their way through before dipping their Continental tyres in the water for a second time.
The course then winds its way through narrow turns and over more inland rises, before heading out to one of the fastest sections. This long, flat run down to a tight ninety-degree left turn will provide a good opportunity to exploit the ENOWA Hyperdrive.
After two 90-degree left hand turns, we enter the new-for-2022 section of the course, which begins with a jump and continues through a fast, flowing section with quick elevation changes before re-joining last year’s course via a tight left/right chicane to complete the lap.
Extreme E has been working closely with Automobile Club d’Italia – the national sports federation co-organising and coordinating the event – the Region of Sardinia, and its Tourism Department plus the Ministry of Defense and the Italian Army to deliver what promises to be a week of double the racing and double the excitement.