Q&A with X44's Cristina Gutiérrez
Lewis Hamilton’s X44 Extreme E team has been among the pace setters in the opening three rounds of Extreme E season one, with Frenchman Sebastien Loeb and Spaniard Cristina Gutiérrez at the wheel of the squad’s all-electric ODYSSEY 21 E-SUV.
With X44 in the midst of the fight for the first ever Extreme E title, we caught up with Gutiérrez ahead of the Enel X Island X Prix in Sardinia next week.
Q: You and Sébastien Loeb have impressed in the opening three rounds of Extreme E 2021, have your performances fallen in-line with your pre-season expectations?
CG: “Of course, we hoped we would do as well as we have, but with a new championship like this with an impressive set of competitors, and completely different terrains at every race, it was very hard to predict. I think we would have liked to have won a final but luck hasn’t been on our side so far, we’re hoping that Sardinia will be the weekend that we can make it happen.”
Q: You’ve taken the Top Qualifier position in every round so far and are currently second in the standings, but how frustrating is it not to have turned that obvious pace into a win so far?
CG: “It’s very frustrating, of course. We would love to be stood on the top of the podium at the end of the weekend, but ultimately, we know that we and the team are doing everything we can to give ourselves the best chance of success. A lot of it has come down to luck and that’s something that affects every team so it’s difficult to complain too much. We’re happy to be in second place and we’ll just keep fighting for a first-place finish.”
Q: You fractured two vertebrae on the way to winning Rally Kazakhstan ahead of the Arctic X Prix. How was the recovery process and did it effect you at all in Greenland?
CG: “That was a very difficult moment for me because of course when you have an injury like that, one of your first thoughts is how long you will be out for. I was in a lot of pain and was worrying that maybe it would mean I couldn’t go to Greenland, but luckily once I spoke to a doctor I found out that I would most likely be fit and ready to drive again a few weeks before the Arctic X Prix. Once I knew that, it was just a case of focussing on my recovery and doing my best to get back to full fitness.”
Q: What did you think of the new XE race format for Greenland, and does it change the strategy of how you approach the events?
CG: “Our strategy is to go as fast as possible and finish the lap – so the race format doesn’t change that too much! Of course, we do think strategically about our positioning against other teams and things like which driver will take the wheel first, but our main strategy is just to look at the race in front of us and figure out the best way to approach it.”
Q: What have been the biggest challenges for you in adapting yourself to driving the ODYSSEY 21, given your vast experience in other off-road race cars?
CG: “The difference isn’t as much as I thought it might be, though of course we have had to adapt to a new kind of vehicle and understand the limitations it has. We’ve definitely had challenges along the way but ultimately one of the important things that Extreme E is doing is finding ways to improve these electric vehicles. We’re in the first season of the championship so I’m confident that in a few years the ODYSSEY 21 will be even more powerful and easy to drive than it is today.”
Q: How has it been to work with Sebastien? What are the biggest things you have learned from him, and how has it been working so closely as a team so far this year?
CG: “Working with Sébastien has been incredible. Having a nine-time World Rally Champion as my teammate and seven-time Formula 1 Champion Lewis Hamilton as the team owner is a dream come true for any driver and I’ve been able to learn so much. Seb is incredibly fast but he’s also an expert at handling the car and he works really closely with the team on strategy and things like this so I try to absorb everything he is saying and put it into practise for myself.”
Q: How different do you expect the terrain to be at the upcoming Island X Prix compared to the opening three rounds of the season, and how will that effect how you set up the ODYSSEY 21?
CG: “Every terrain so far has been totally different to the one before, so we need to be adaptable. You don’t get a long time with the car before racing begins so we just try to get to know the terrain as much as possible, either in the car, walking, or driving in a buggy, and we learn as much as we can about the track.”
Q: Sardinia is a critical weekend for X44, if it goes well you can still be well in the title hunt into the season finale. What can you do to be as prepared as possible heading into round four?
CG: “We have a small but really great team of people who are experts in what they do. Once it gets to race weekend, I try to listen and learn as much as possible from Seb, our engineers and our mechanics, and take on board their advice and feedback wherever I can. In the meantime, I spend my time before races working on my fitness, learning as much as I can about the terrain, and of course driving in other rallies where I learn new things all the time.”
