Extreme E: British driver Billy Monger to race in new series

British driver Billy Monger has been named as one of the latest entrants to the Extreme E championship.

Monger is a double leg amputee after suffering serious injuries in a high-speed Formula 4 crash at Donington Park in 2017.

The 20-year-old returned to competition earlier this year with Carlin Racing in the Euroformula series in a car with specially adapted hand controls.

“Fighting climate change is incredibly important,” Monger said.

“Everything we do now will affect future generations. It’s definitely a responsibility, and one that I can’t and won’t just ignore.”

Extreme E, set to launch in 2021, is an environment-focused racing series in which 12 teams race off-road in fully electric SUVs in five remote locations around the world to highlight the effects of climate change.

Joining Monger on the series’ drivers’ programme is ex-Formula 1 driver Karun Chandhok, European Rally champion Chris Ingram and W Series champion Jamie Chadwick, who was named on the programme in September.

Other new drivers named in the programme include Sam Sunderland, the first British winner of the Dakar Rally, and Formula E drivers Jerome d’Ambrosio, Daniel Abt, and Oliver Turvey.

What is Extreme E?

Extreme E is the sister series to Formula E and will see teams race over three days on routes designed with natural obstacles, in electric SUVs capable of reaching 0-62mph in 4.5 seconds.

The series will have a ‘floating paddock’ – the newly renovated St Helena, a former Royal Mail cargo ship – which will be used to transport championship freight to each location, and is thought to reduce carbon emissions when compared to air travel.

Onboard will be a laboratory and a team of environmental experts from Cambridge University to study the environmental impact of climate change in each region.

Locations include Greenland, the Amazon Rainforest, the Nepalese Himalayas, and the desert in Saudi Arabia, with one more to be announced.

Testing begins in mid-2020, with the series starting in Greenland in February 2021.