RIYADH — Building on the success of its debut year in 2021, Extreme E-Season 2 Championship is returning to the Kingdom with a stronger and more attractive agenda in its second season, where the "Desert X Prix” award will be launched in "NEOM" on Feb 19-20.

Running under the theme “The Race for the Planet”, the new racing series in its second edition continues to present its lofty message, and its focus on addressing climate change through sports, which corresponds to the goals of the Saudi "Vision 2030" and the pioneering "NEOM" project to build a high-performance ecosystem and meets the Kingdom's commitment to developing and encouraging sustainability technologies.

The start will be from the deserts of "NEOM", where the huge project that includes exceptional cities and the main destination for visitors and an inspiring site for all adventure sports, with its wide red sand, spectacular sandstone formations and historical wall art of civilizations dating back thousands of years.

Choosing "NEOM" as a primary site by "Xtreme E" was not only because of its picturesque desert scenery and the great cultural and societal transformation it represents, but also because this tournament aims to shed light on the causes of desertification and loss of biodiversity, and the importance of resilience in this region.

This is in addition to NEOM’s terrain which will also ensure a robust test drive for drivers and the all-electric Odyssey 21, which will be driven by a male and female driver from each team over two days of competition.

After the race in AlUla, home to the world's largest sand desert, and the hub of global motorsport, the inaugural race will take place. It is expected to be intense in a season in which teams are expected to take the challenge to a higher level in an attempt to copy the achievement of the title-winning Rosberg X Racing team, the winner of the first edition of the championship.

Each team will participate with male and female drivers, a step aiming at encouraging equal opportunity between competitors, and each male and female driver will complete one lap, with the adoption of switching roles as per the race formula, with the team determining the driver who starts first to best suit its strategy, as the selection will be secretly conducted to keep the competitors unaware of each other's choices until the moment the cars hit the starting line. — SPA