Throughout 14 years in motorsport, Cristina Gutiérrez has marked herself out as a leader among Spanish and female racing drivers, setting records and winning titles in various series, and she’s come to realise the common denominator to this success has been communication, even more so than sheer speed or race craft.  

Communication and hard work have been the hallmarks of her success to date and that’s one of the reasons why she chose to sign for the NEOM McLaren Extreme E Team. She felt that this was the type of environment that she could thrive in.  

And that’s some compliment coming from the 2022 Extreme E Champion, who knows exactly what it takes to be successful in the all-electric series.  

“Communication is the most important thing: we need to all come together to make decisions and compete as one team,” Cristina says, speaking from the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking. “I think we are going to fight for wins, and we will for sure be competitive in the series.  

“I have been lucky enough to see this team work in Extreme E in the last few years and I can say that they are driven and serious about competing in Extreme E and they feel like a family, which in my opinion, is one of the best things for a team. 

“The atmosphere that exists within the team is incredible. You can see the professional level that every member of the team has, while still feeling like a family. It feels very comfortable to be a part of this team.  

“Any driver dreams of being able to be part of a team like McLaren, which has such a great history behind it.” 

Cristina is a born winner. In three seasons of Extreme E, the Spaniard has taken four wins and six podiums, finishing as the runner-up in 2021, and Champion in 2022, with Team X44.  

This is in addition to her other racing exploits, of which there are many. Cristina finished top of the female category in the All-Terrain Spanish Rally Championship for six consecutive years, which included second overall in the mixed-gender category, and in 2021, she became the FIA Crosscountry Rally champion in the T3 category, and the first woman to win an FIA Crosscountry championship.  

But Cristina is most famous for her achievements in the Dakar Rally, where she became the first Spanish woman to ever finish the rally in 2017 and the second woman to attain a stage victory in 2021.  

We’re barely two months into 2024 and Cristina has already added to her trophy cabinet, becoming the overall champion of the Dakar Rally in the challenger category in January, making her the second woman to win a Dakar Rally, and the first in the Challenger category  

“I think it's important to stay active through the year, and I have been lucky to compete in different disciplines in recent years,” Cristina says. “I think it’s important to spend as many hours in the car as possible and I have done many kilometres in different types of cars. If you go months without being in a car and then you go and try to compete in Extreme E, it is difficult.” 

The 32-year-old will be joined at NEOM McLaren by Mattias Ekström, with the pair having previously competed together at Rally Raid events and against one another in Extreme E. Together, they believe they can turn NEOM McLaren into a race-winning outfit in Extreme E and add to their combined tally of six XE victories to date.  

Both drivers are fearlessly ambitious – they’ve experienced title challenges in Extreme E before and wouldn’t have joined if they didn’t believe the team was capable of similar. Though, both are acutely aware of how much work is required to realise those aims.  

“I have known Mattias for many years and I can say that he’s an incredible driver and a great car developer,” Cristina says. “I know that I am going to learn a lot with him and that we are going to form a very great team.  

“I think that we can set great goals for ourselves and fight to be at the top, but we need to fight as a team. We need to be a family and we need to communicate with one another very openly. If we can do this, we will fight at the top.” 

Cristina and Mattias will begin their first campaign as NEOM McLaren Extreme E teammates in Round 1 of the 2024 season in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on 17-18 February. Details on where to watch Mattias and Cristina in action can be found here.