13 September 2019

Britain's Jamie Chadwick to race in climate change series

W Series champion Jamie Chadwick has been named as one of three women who will drive in Extreme E in Greenland in 2021.

The 21-year-old joins fellow Brit Katherine Legge and Sweden's Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky for the inaugural sister series to Formula E.

The event sees 12 drivers go head-to-head in electric SUVs across five remote locations in a bid to highlight climate change. The fully-electric vehicles will be capable of reaching 0-62mph in 4.5 seconds.

Chadwick showed her delight, saying: "Racing in incredible locations, raising awareness for climate change...what's not to love?

"As part of the generation who are needing to be increasingly more aware of our environment and having grown up in the countryside in England, for me it is more relevant than ever to be raising awareness. It really is a win-win," she added.

The first location for the environmentally-focused series is the Russell Galcier in South-West Greenland in February 2021 and in order to travel between the locations with minimal carbon emissions the series will have a 'floating paddock'.

Former Royal Mail cargo ship RMS St Helena will be used to host teams, drivers and garages and will house environmental experts from Cambridge University who will study the impact of climate change in each of the regions and investigate restoration of affected areas.

The remaining locations include the Arctic, the Himalayas, desert terrain, and islands in the Indian ocean and the Amazon rainforest. In each location drivers will race head-to-head over three days over routes dotted with natural obstacles over a 10km radius. 

Completing the 12-strong line-up are world rally champion Sebastian Ogier, world rallycross drivers Andreas Bakkerud, Timo Scheider, and Kevin and Timmy Hansen as well as Sacha Prost, and Formula E drivers Lucas di Grassi, and Andre Lotterer.

Extreme E and Formula E founder Alejandro Agag, said: "This world-class list of drivers representing the very best male and female talent from multiple disciplines across top-tier motorsport, illustrates Extreme E's serious sporting credentials."

Testing will begin in mid-2020 and the series starts in Greenland in February 2021. 

Russell Glacier in Greenland will be the location for first race of the inaugural series (PA Images)

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