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Back in action: How our Extreme E team prepared for our home race

Why the NEOM McLaren Extreme E Team spent a couple of days in Wales blowing off the cobwebs

Testing. It’s a crucial element to every series McLaren competes in, but for the NEOM McLaren Extreme E team, it’s arguably even more vital. 

Due to the unique way the championship operates, our Odyssey 21 spends most of the season onboard the St. Helena – the ship that takes care of all of the series’ logistics. That means we rarely see it until it’s either in our tent in the paddock, or on track. 

But with the next race being on home shores, we had the rare opportunity to not only give the car some much-needed TLC, but to run through important testing items over a couple of days at the famed Sweet Lamb rally complex in Wales. 

Rebuild

Building on from the last race... and rebuilding the car 

“It's been a long time since the last event,” says Sporting Director Gary Paffett. “We had the car back in the workshop, where we stripped and rebuilt it, so the first bit of the test was shaking the car down and making sure it's mechanically sound before we go to Scotland. But also for the team to get used to working on the car again, and the drivers to get used to driving the car. It's quite a unique car to drive, so for them to have two days driving the car is essential.” 

At the last event, in Saudi Arabia back in February, the team fared strongly, taking second on the first day, and winning the Redemption Race on the second after narrowly missing out on the Final. All of that came despite a persistent performance issue that the two days in Wales have allowed the team to explore and get to the bottom of. 

“In Saudi Arabia, there were things that we wanted to understand,” Gary explains. “We had a performance issue that we wanted to analyse and get on top of. So, we've been working hard to make sure that everything, every component of the car, is being analysed and tested to make sure it's where it needs to be, while looking out for anything else that we can improve.  

Of course, it’s not all about looking back and problem solving, with Gary also adding that there’s been some “general improvement on the package”, with the next round in Scotland in mind. Mattias added that the seat time in the long gap between races has been a big benefit. 

"Any test session is very welcome,” he says. “In Extreme E, they are very rare, and after such a long break, it is nice to drive the car and get up to speed with the small setup changes, and to dial in the car, and try it on a hard surface with the new components that we have for this year. Having two days of driving is helping everything and I felt we had two good days.”

Garage

Speed isn’t everything 

It all sounds par for the course when it comes to motorsport testing, doesn’t it? But unlike our F1, IndyCar, and Formula E efforts, testing for the Extreme E team doesn’t include the additional element of chasing lap times. Instead, the team can focus on getting the car to behave how they and the drivers want it to, and banking data. 

“It's similar for a lot of off-road or rally testing, in that, you're not so focused on lap times,” Gary explains. “We obviously have a course, we look at how quickly we’re going, and compare session to session, but a lot of it is really on driver feedback: what the driver feels and what the data is saying about what the car is doing. 

“It's not necessarily analysing corner performance or lap times, it’s more about collecting data and the feedback from what the driver is feeling.” 

With every Extreme E venue being so radically different from the next one – and the test venue as well – relying on circuit-specific knowledge is almost out of the question. Instead, the team needs to learn as much as it can overall, giving it a broader bank of information to call upon.

“That is one of the big challenges, because we could be going from driving in deep sand in Saudi Arabia, to Chile, where it was a very flat, hard surface, or Scotland on the grass or the quarry surface,” Gary says. “It's hard, you can't test for all circumstances.  

“There's still a lot of work to do when you get to each event, to do with the roughness of the course, the amount of jumps we've got, the amount of bumps as well, and we will change the suspension setup. 

“So, we try and test as much as we can. But obviously, it's very difficult to find venues where you can go and try different surfaces with the size of jumps and roughness that we have.” 

On track

Getting reacquainted 

The gap between races also means that the test is an important team building exercise, with Mattias and Cristina  still just one event and two races into their McLaren careers. 

“I’m very happy to have had the opportunity to test, it is appreciated after so much time between each race,” says Cristina. “Reconnecting with the team and Mattias is essential for the next race in Scotland, and we are very happy with the feeling of the team and the car.” 

The drivers aren’t the only newbies still getting comfortable, either. 

“There are other changes as well,” Gary points out. “From Scotland onwards, we've got two new engineers with us – a race engineer and a systems engineer – so there's certainly been some team building with them, working with the rest of the team and the drivers.  

“The drivers have only had one event working with the rest of the team, so we're all learning about each other, still, step by step. I think that the relationship between everybody is something that will just get stronger during the season. There's still a lot we're learning, but I think that already we have a very good atmosphere, and that happened quite quickly, right from the first event.” 

Cristina Gutiérrez

Onto a happy hunting ground 

Scotland next week is a familiar location for Extreme E, and NEOM McLaren, but while the backdrop will be the same as last year’s Hydro X Prix, the track itself has gone through a number of significant changes.  

“We had a good performance there last year, and we’ve learned a lot since then, so we’re not going to go there and just set the car up exactly the same and do exactly the same as we did, because we can still do better,” says Gary. “We'll take the learnings that we've had from last year at Scotland, the learnings from the test, and try to put the best package we have on the ground when we get there in Scotland.  

“It is nice to come back to somewhere we've been before because you've already got data and information, which is good.” 

Copying and pasting from last year and delivering exactly the same isn’t something the team is planning on doing, with Gary pointing out that “from a sporting point of view, it is quite a different series this year to what it was last year”, not to mention the revisions to the course, too.  

Nevertheless, with a second place there last year, and one already in this season’s opener, expectations are understandably high, with Gary saying it  “obviously gives us something to aim for.”  

“We nearly won the first race of the year, and we were certainly competitive. The expectation has to be to be competitive and to be aiming for race wins. I think, bare minimum, we need to be making the Grand Final on both days and certainly be on the podium and trying to win the race.

“That has to be the goal, because I believe that we have the driver line-up, the package, and the team to try to do that.”