ART Grand Prix joins Veloce Racing on Extreme E Season 1 Grid

As the first year of racing in the Extreme E series approaches, new partnerships are built within each of the eight teams that will contest the debut season of the highly-anticipated electric SUV off-road racing series.

Veloce Racing has joined forces with ART Grand Prix, a team founded in 1996 aiming to develop expertise in the training of young talents. 

As a result, the brand values printed in the team´s DNA – precision, performance, flexibility, responsiveness, and team spirit have made of ART Grand Prix, one of the forces of international motorsport, achieving 19 drivers’ titles across Formula 2/GP2 and Formula 3/GP3.

“This is a very positive partnership, Extreme E is a new series operating in very difficult areas of the world with new cars, technology, and a multitude of challenges. To work with an extremely successful and solid ‘pair of hands’ like ART Grand Prix – who have competed and won in so many series’ as well as helped develop some of the world’s best drivers and engineers – gives Veloce Racing a great head start,” said Adrian Newey, Veloce Racing Lead Visionary.

Veloce Racing announced its entry to the pioneering electric off-road racing championship last year, gathering a group of industry entrepreneurs to lead the way of its 2021 campaign, among them Daniel Bailey, Rupert Svendsen-Cook, Jack Clarke, and Harrison Newey.

The team is co-founded by its industry-leading sister organization Veloce Esports, showing that bringing an Esports company into a traditional sports series is possible.

A year ago in London, at the official team launch, Jean-Éric Vergne, a co-founder, Double Formula E champion, and former Formula 1 driver said: 

“For me, it was clear I had to be involved since I first saw the concept. Together with my other co-founders, we have worked incredibly hard to make this happen. We plan to be disruptive in our approach as we drive awareness of climate change.”

ART Grand Prix finds its home base in France; in addition to their involvement in Formula One feeder series Formula 2 and Formula 3, the team also competes in Formula Renault and the DTM (Deutsche Touringcar Masters) Championship.

In 2020, BMW ORLEN Team joined forces with ART Grand Prix to operate its single-car entry at the DTM Championship.

Formula One Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN F1 Team reserve driver, Robert Kubica, is behind the wheel of the BMW M4, powered by a 600 horsepower.

Sébastien Philippe, a former talented racer himself, who in 2014 became ART Grand Prix Team Manager, shared his thoughts on joining Veloce Racing as its Competition Partner.

“This is a really exciting partnership for ART. We have developed our reputation in the world of single-seater/formula racing, and we are multiple winners; but this is a fantastic new challenge for us in an incredibly innovative series, with a very driven group of people at Veloce Racing. It is great to be involved in Extreme E and Veloce Racing from the very start, and I’m sure it will be an exciting journey.” 

VELOCE AND ART GO EXTREME E

The all-electric new racing series will compete in five remote locations on the planet, the Amazon rainforest, the Arctic, the Himalayas, the Sahara desert, and the Indian Ocean Islands.

The eight teams set to take part in the 2021 season of Extreme are Team X44, Team Techeetah, HWA, ABT Sportline, Veloce Racing, QEV Technologies, Andretti Motorsport, Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR).

The ODYSSEY 21 electric-SUV will be using zero-emission energy to charge the fleet, as a result of the partnership with AFC Energy, becoming the first event organizer to utilize hydrogen fuel cell, power generator for charging.

To this date, the American driver’s duo form by Six-time Pro-4 Short Course Off-Road Champion Kyle LeDuc joins Off-road Truck Champion and X Games Medalist Sara Price is the first full driver’s line up to be confirmed, driving with Chip Ganassi Racing.

ABT Sportsline has recently announced multiple DTM and FIA World Rally champion Mattias Ekström’s as its male driver – his female team-mate is yet to be known.

BREAKING NEWS

Today, The Extreme E series has announced that the ship in which the ODYSSEY 21 E-SUVs will travel, and that has undergone an extensive refurbishment process since 2018, the Royal Mail Ship St Helena, should see the refurbishment works completed in the next two months.

The ship encompasses 62 cabins on board, a Science Laboratory, and will serve as a logistics hub to the series.

Austen Brunton, Technical Project Manager at Wilson Ship Management said: “Seeing the St. Helena re-enter the water is a very proud moment for myself and all my team. We have spent 18 months working on her to get her into this condition, and it has been great to see her finally back on the water, where she belongs. We still have some more work to do on the interior, but she is now preparing for her new lease of life in her career, with Extreme E.”