zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Racing
/
Former F1 Champion Nico Rosberg's Extreme E Team Dominates Inaugural Saudi Arabia X Prix
Former F1 Champion Nico Rosberg's Extreme E Team Dominates Inaugural Saudi Arabia X Prix-October 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:10:58

Image for article titled Former F1 Champion Nico Rosberg's Extreme E Team Dominates Inaugural Saudi Arabia X Prix

If you had the luxury of watching the as it aired, you were in for a treat: it was a hell of a lot of fun, and there were two clear front-running teams: those owned by former Mercedes Formula One rivals Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton. And it was Rosberg’s team that triumphed in a big way.

The structure of an X Prix is a little unique compared to most other racing series, so it warrants a quick rundown. On Saturday, every team competes in two time trial qualifying sessions. Teams are then ordered from one to nine, which put the fastest team first and the slowest last based on the combined total of both teams’ qualifying runs.

The three fastest teams head into the Semi-Final event, and the two fastest finishers there moved to the Desert X Prix final. In this case, those three teams were X44 (Hamilton’s team), Acciona Sainz, and RXR (Rosberg’s team). The two fastest finishers in the Semi-Final move into the Desert X Prix Final.

The middle three teams—the fourth through sixth fastest—compete in something called a Crazy Race. In this case, those teams were Andretti United, Hispano Suiza Xite, and JBXE. The winner from that event moves onto the Desert X Prix Final.

The three slowest teams also compete in a Shoot Out, where there is no progression. Those teams will finish in the last three spaces. They’re basically just battling for points to accrue toward the overall Championship. This weekend, SEGI TV Chip Ganassi Racing, ABT CUPRA, and Veloce Racing were those final three teams, with each one having crashed or suffered severe penalties during qualifying.

Andretti United secured its place in the Final after winning the Crazy Race, and X44 and RXR moved on from the Semi-Final. And after a stunning two laps, Molly Taylor and Johan Kristoffersson took the victory.

I have to say that it was something of a hit-or-miss weekend for Extreme E as a whole. The events were really exciting, but the explanations and broadcasts were confusing. The series consistently advertised itself as being ‘live’ when it was actually airing a recap reel from earlier in the day. So, if you checked live timing on the Extreme E website, it would be inconsistent with what you were seeing aired.

And many viewers expressed their confusion over how, exactly, each session pertained to the overall scope of the weekend. You had to have scoped out the rulebook before the weekend started, and even then, it wasn’t intuitive. I was left confused trying to explain the format to someone last week and told myself that I’d just watch the X Prix, at which point it would all be cleared up. It wasn’t. The exceptionally patient person running the Extreme E Twitter account did the heavy lifting when it came to explanations this weekend.

I had one other pet peeve that a few other folks mentioned in the live comment section of the Extreme E stream: the commentators seemed to be very heavy-handed in their identification of the female racers. So, for example, in referring to the winning RXR team, they’d speak about “Johan Kristoffersson and his female teammate, Molly Taylor.”

A mention that Extreme E mandates gender equality is fine, since that is a really cool feature of the sport. Mentioning that each team has a male and a female driver is fine. But in a situation where both drivers are competing on equal terms, it does get frustrating to consistently identify one as being somehow different. It was made all the worse by the fact that the commentators frequently referred to the women as “girls,” which is an that our society speaks about women and serves to reduce their ambition to something lesser than that of men.

But there was a lot that Extreme E did right. It arrived in Saudi Arabia early to undertake a beach cleanup project, and it spent the weekend sharing information about the concept of . The series aims to encourage education, research, and activism, trying to leave the area it raced at in better condition than before. It was great to see the series really reaching out and making the most of its activist concept.

These are still early days, which means there’s plenty of room for the series to grow. And I think a lot of fans are eager to see it happen.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Racing
Monster Is Really Making A Bang In NASCAR
Monster Is Really Making A Bang In NASCAR
Tires have been particularly tricky in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover International Speedway this time around, and one of the recent victims was the Monster Energy car of Kurt Busch. If Monster hasn’t made a figurative bang so far, well, it has now—literally. This was the...
Oct 23, 2026
Brighten Your Afternoon With This Glorious, Glowing Corvette That'll Race At Le Mans
Brighten Your Afternoon With This Glorious, Glowing Corvette That'll Race At Le Mans
Over the years, BMW’s art cars have been... interesting. For instance, last year’s car in a strangely narcissistic, minimalist way. The most recent . But this art car from Team Larbre Competition for the 24 Hours of Le Mans just blew BMW out of the water. The team shared photos...
Oct 23, 2026
Your Ridiculously Awesome Ferrari 488 GT3 Wallpaper Is Here
Your Ridiculously Awesome Ferrari 488 GT3 Wallpaper Is Here
There’s just something about a mean-looking race car staring you right in the eyes. Meet the Ferrari 488 GT3 racer from the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, which finished second in its class at the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic in Detroit over the weekend. Our dear photographer friend Kurt Bradley ,...
Oct 23, 2026
Bask In The Glory Of Awesome Sports Cars Racing In Detroit
Bask In The Glory Of Awesome Sports Cars Racing In Detroit
This weekend, a pack of IMSA’s best took to the Raceway at Belle Isle Park, and I was on the ground to cover the action. There were plenty of fast cars just begging to be photographed, so, naturally, I did. I picked out a selection of shots you may or...
Oct 23, 2026
This Wet NASCAR Road Course Battle Will Completely Melt Your Brain
This Wet NASCAR Road Course Battle Will Completely Melt Your Brain
NASCAR is the butt of many jokes over the fact that they run any of their ovals in the rain. But NASCAR will run on a wet road course. The perfect combination of a soaking wet track and ludicrously powerful stock cars is more fun than anyone deserves to watch,...
Oct 23, 2026
NHRA Explosions Are The Stuff Of Nightmares
NHRA Explosions Are The Stuff Of Nightmares
Explosions aren’t great, especially when they happen behind the wheel of a car. But NHRA explosions are their own wacky, terrifying thing. Just watch that car go boom at more than 330 mph! That does not look like an ideal Friday evening. This explosion came from Courtney Force’s Funny Car...
Oct 23, 2026
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved