Hear from NEOM McLaren Extreme E drivers Emma Gilmour, Tanner Foust and Sporting Director Gary Paffett after the Desert X Prix I & II in NEOM, Saudi Arabia.

Round 1

NEOM McLaren XE Team #58

Qualifying 1 – Heat 2 (race heat)	P5, 12:01.721*
Qualifying 2 – Heat 2 (race heat)	P3, 11:41.126
Redemption Race	P1, 28:55.292 (8 points)

*The team was awarded a 3.5 second time penalty due to Switch Zone speeding.

"Today was a tough start to the first Extreme E race of the season. We’ve been refining our set-up from yesterday into today and didn’t have the pace in Qualifying 1. We had an incident in the Switch Zone, which also set us back. However, from that point we clawed our way back and kept fighting.

"The team have done an amazing job, working tirelessly today as the car has quite a few battle scars from the races. There are trying conditions, it’s dusty and hot, and they’ve kept repairing the car and giving it back to us like it’s new. Big shout out to the team, they’ve done an amazing job. We go again tomorrow!"

"We certainly didn’t disappoint on the ‘extreme’ side today. We started off with some pretty aggressive set-up changes due to the lack of track time we have in this series. We unfortunately lost a bit of time in the process in Qualifying 1, but made that back in Qualifying 2, and then showed good pace for the rest of the day.

"The team have been fantastic, repairing the car, enabling us to improve. However, we did end up in the Redemption Race. We won the Redemption Race, making us the best of the rest. The goal is overall wins, so we’ll push the reset button and start from scratch tomorrow with the set-up that we like. Hopefully, we’ll be able to improve on today’s performance."

"All in all, today was a hectic day. We always expected it to be busy with three 5-car races a day in the new race format for this season. There was a lot going on in Qualifying 1. We went from being P3 going into the Switch Zone, to dropping back to P5, ultimately finishing P5 overall. The Qualifying 2 race went better, with the drivers getting more comfortable with the circuit and car, managing to finish that session in P3. A decent result, being close to those in front. Unfortunately, because of the result of the result in Qualifying 1, we didn’t get through to the Grand Final, so ended up in the Redemption Race in the afternoon.

"In the Redemption Race, Tanner had a great start, fighting for the lead from the off. There were multiple incidents in the race, including early on in the race, with the ABT CUPRA car rolling over the car of Tanner, causing a lot of damage to the car. The race got red flagged eventually because of the incident. We restarted the race after the red flag in P2, with Emma behind the wheel. Emma had an incredible restart and controlled it superbly from there. To ‘win’ the Redemption Race and score 8 points is a solid result. There is quite a bit of work to do on the car now ahead of tomorrow, but we’ve learned a lot today, collected some points and are looking forward to getting at it again tomorrow. Thanks also to the team for their hard work and getting the car in a good state for each of the sessions so far – that wasn’t an easy task!"

Championship standings after Round 1:

P1 Veloce Racing (26 points)
P2 Acciona | Sainz XE Team (21 points)
P3 Rosberg X Racing (15 points)
P6 NEOM McLaren Extreme E Team (8 points) 

Round 2

NEOM McLaren XE Team #58

Qualifying 1 – Heat 2 (race heat)	P4, 11:40.046*
Qualifying 2 – Heat 1 (race heat)	P3, 21:16.134
Redemption Race	P2, 11:20.282 (6 points)

*The team was awarded a 2.4 second time penalty due to Switch Zone speeding.

"It was a slightly frustrating day. It’s a shame that we have not come away from this Desert X Prix with more points. In motorsport though, you can always have worse weekends. Considering where we were at the start of the weekend, and the progress we had to make, I think we did really well considering.

"As a team, we work together really strongly. We finished positively, although there is disappointment that we didn’t get some more points. That aside, I still really enjoyed the racing. The dust made it challenging if you weren’t in front, it was a hard battle behind. Next, we race in Scotland in May, which I can’t wait for!"

"Rounds 1 and 2 of the 2023 Extreme E season in NEOM were definitely on the ‘extreme’ side of things. We chased some set-up gremlins for at least the first two days which cost us some time. By the end, the car had great pace. In the Traction Challenge, which is a long sector, we were 0.08 seconds away from winning.

"We didn’t make the Grand Final in either round, so we had to battle it out in the Redemption Race. We won that in Round 1, and came second in Round 2, and we’re more motivated than ever to push on with our new set-up in Scotland."

"Another challenging day, where we made some progress in important areas. Step by step we are improving the car, with the drivers getting used to the car again and finding the right window. Unfortunately, we didn’t quite maximise the qualifying runs and narrowly missed out of getting into the Grand Final – having to fight for points in the Redemption Race again today. This time we finished the Redemption Race in P2, but we made further progress throughout the race, getting close on the Traction Challenge [which would have scored us more championship points].

"Again; we’ve learned a lot this weekend. It’s good for the team to be back together. We need to keep doing the good things we are doing, putting all the pieces together and ensure we get ourselves in the Grand Final moving forwards, starting with Scotland in a couple months’ time."

Championship standings after Round 2:

P1 Veloce Racing (46 points)
P2 Acciona | Sainz XE Team (46 points)
P3 Rosberg X Racing (31 points)
P7 NEOM McLaren Extreme E Team (14 points) 

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