Since the inaugural season in 2021, Extreme E has employed “Championship Drivers”—one male and female each—who serve as advisors to the series and last-minute reserves in the event of a full-timer being unable to race. For 2023, Tamara Molinaro will return to that post while Andreas Bakkerud joins the series as one.
Molinaro became Extreme E’s Championship Driver in mid-2021 after the original reserve Jutta Kleinschmidt was hired to finish out the year with ABT CUPRA XE. The replacement duties were quickly carried out the following year when she subbed for Klara Andersson, who tested positive for COVID-19, at XITE Energy Racing for the season-opening Desert X Prix. After she and team owner Oliver Bennett nearly reached the Final, Bennett elected to keep her in the seat for the rest of the season while also replacing himself with Timo Scheider, the male Championship Driver; the duo scored a second-place finish in their maiden start together at the first Island X Prix. Scheider returned to his reserve role at the finale in Uruguay, and Molinaro and Ezequiel Pérez Companc closed out 2022 by placing eighth in the championship.
Bakkerud was one of the first drivers picked up by Extreme E shortly after its reveal in 2019, being part of the “Drivers’ Programme” for interested competitors and testing the Spark ODYSSEY 21 a year later. Although Bakkerud was ultimately not signed by any teams, he has long been positive about the series’ blueprint. The 31-year-old Norwegian has competed in a variety of rallycross series including the FIA World Rallycross Championship, in which he finished runner-up in 2019, and Nitro Rallycross where he currently sits second in the Group E standings. He won the FIA European Rallycross Championship in 2021.
Although Bakkerud has noted driving Extreme E cars require a different style than rallycross, there is heavy crossover between the two disciplines. Much of the eighteen drivers currently confirmed for the 2023 season have competed in rallycross including Bakkerud’s World RX rivals Timmy Hansen (for Andretti) and Johan Kristoffersson (2021 XE champion with Rosberg). Molinaro also has rallycross experience, though spent much of her career in rallying.
As part of their responsibilities, Bakkerud and Molinaro are also assisting in developing the course for this weekend’s Desert X Prix opener in Saudi Arabia.
Others to have worked as Championship Drivers include Romain Dumas, Christine GZ, Hedda Hosås, and Fraser McConnell; Dumas and Hosås were strictly guest reserves for the 2022 Desert X Prix before the latter became a regular for JBXE. McConnell currently races against Bakkerud in Nitro RX.