Hear from NEOM McLaren Extreme E drivers Emma Gilmour, Tanner Foust and Sporting Director Gary Paffett after the 2023 Island X Prix II in Sardinia, Italy.

NEOM McLaren XE Team #58

*The team only completed three out of four laps due to a suspension failure, ultimately classifying in P4. 
**Time penalty of 10 seconds due to causing a collision.

“A tough day again for us. A really difficult day, and a tough weekend overall for us here in Sardinia. We got punished on our starts and it's a very difficult course to fight back on. The first qualifying race went well, finishing P3 – the second qualifying race was much poorer. We got damage to the car and then had to retire from the race, finishing P4.  

“In the Redemption Race it didn't get much better. A poor start, followed by again damage to the car, left us unable to fight back. A tough day, with few positives for us here in Sardinia – although the team did amazing work, ensuring the car was repaired on multiple occasions, and was in a good window. We will have to wait another while, till the next event, to be able to bounce back. I am confident we will.  

“A huge positive for McLaren Racing today, over in Silverstone: P2 and P4 for the Formula 1 team: congrats to all.” 

“A very long weekend in Sardinia comes to an end; Round 5 and 6 in the books. It started off difficult with some bad luck on the drawing positions, but things didn't necessarily improve from there. I would say our only real weakness was our start – and unfortunately for us, on this track, as on a lot of Extreme E tracks, the start is really important for the final result. If you are not able to get out as one of the leading cars, then you find yourself fighting for positions and visibility for the rest of the race. 
 
“Our pace around the track was good. I think we overtook well, which is promising, but almost bittersweet, as we were not able to convert that into good results. We will be focusing on the work needed ahead of the next round. 
 
“Away from the Extreme E course: an unbelievable success story for McLaren Racing in Silverstone. Huge congrats to Lando, Oscar and the whole team. Big accomplishment, and super promising for the McLaren Racing family.” 

“We had a better grid pick today, which is a good place to start with. For the first race, we were in the fight throughout, finishing third in the that race, so a decent start to the day. Then, in the second race, unfortunately we had some contact with another car which damaged the car, leaving us unable to finish that race. We ended up being classified fourth, just missing out on the ever-important Grand Final. 

“Starting the Redemption Race, we found ourselves fighting in the first part of the race. After Emma took over [from Tanner], she felt the car wasn't great and reported something was wrong with the car. From the outside we couldn't see any damage, so asked Emma to continue, but she really struggled with pace, and we ended up finishing the Redemption Race in P4. When the car returned to the garage, we found out we had a driveshaft failure on the front of the car. Ultimately, the weekend has been disappointing. As mentioned, we just missed out on the Grand Final, and didn't pick up many points. 

“On the positive side, we finished high up in the Traction Challenge, which shows we have pace in the car. However, there are clearly things we need to work on. Our starts haven't been great - and that is something we will address.” 

Championship standings after Round 6:

P1 Acciona | Sainz XE Team (109 points)
P2 RXR Racing (105 points)
P3 Veloce Racing (95 points)
P7 NEOM McLaren Extreme E Team (44 points)