Racing lines: How Catie Munnings dives into Extreme E Car News

But it’s also good for her that she has had time to recover. “Timmy told me you have to get your arms ready, because there’s no power steering in these things, so I didn’t want to complain,” she says. “But it was really heavy. I could barely turn it; I had to tear it off. Then they realized at the end of the first day that he was actually broken… ”

Become current

Munnings and Hansen had been confident in the first round of the Extreme E following a decent test in December. But with such a step into the unknown for the nine teams participating in the inaugural season of the electric SUV series, it was “thrilled” for Andretti United to leave Saudi Arabia with second place.

A former children’s television presenter, Munnings was never impressed with the wide exposure Extreme E was attracting in the UK (thanks to its general coverage on ITV, BBC, BT Sport and Sky Sports). However, she is well aware of the opportunity offered by Extreme E, and not just for her personally.

“It’s incredible coverage for an off-road sport,” she says. “We had prime time television on Easter Sunday. What I noticed was that I rode with a lot of punctures on the rally stages, but this time I had good feedback from a general public who had never seen this before. . Rally coverage is a niche, so for the sport to have that exposure to an audience more used to track racing is cool. I am delighted to be a part of it.

“I signed up before all the high-caliber pilots; I was right at the start. Seeing them come in was both cool and quite intimidating. But like Timmy says, everyone has a steering wheel and two pedals, and we know how to handle that.

Senegal will bite

Munnings and Hansen face a full reset for Senegal, as do all of their rivals, as one of the key aspects of Extreme E is that teams face each event largely blindly. They are only given a superficial amount of information about the beach course they will be competing on this weekend. So what do you know, Catie?

“That there will be a lot of mosquitoes and that we have been told to give a lot of bites!” She answers. “We’re starting on the beach, so hopefully the sand will be heavier and we won’t have as much dust. Apparently it goes on a gravel track that is a bit narrower and twisty, compared to what we have seen in Arabia. So I guess it will be slower, but there should be more racing action with more options for different lines. It won’t be that quick and that wide open.