Dakar Debrief: Theo Gouzin, Spark Racing Technology

At the turn of the year, Extreme E's electric-SUV, ODYSSEY 21, was put through its paces during an intensive development programme across Saudi Arabia, including at a potential Extreme E race site in Al ‘Ula, as well as in shakedown and at the closing Grand Prix of Qiddiya stage of the 2020 Dakar Rally.

Théophile Gouzin, Technical Director of Spark Racing Technology – the company building the series' pioneering E-SUV, says an invaluable amount of information has been learned.

“It was quite a process getting set up in the desert,” said Gouzin. “When the opportunity to take part in the Dakar Rally arose we could simply not let it go;  so we adapted our plan and we were thrilled to do so!”

"It really pushed everybody in the team onwards – it was extremely positive and valuable. Al'-Ula is magnificient and also proved to be an excellent testing area for the car.”

FIA World Rallycross racer Guerlain Chicherit spent a week with the Spark Racing Technology team following its appearance at the curtain-raising shakedown for the Dakar Rally, providing plenty of feedback for the engineers and technicians on the ground. 

There could scarcely be someone better placed than Guerlain to provide feedback on the car’s handling in desert conditions, with the Frenchman's Dakar Rally appearances extending into double figures.

“Generally speaking the car outpassed our expectations this past fortnight,” added Gouzin. “Guerlain (Chicherit) got a good amount of mileage in the sand, rocks and dunes; he has been a huge asset to improve the car and it’s been an invaluable process for us. Guerlain loved the car, he was stunned with its abilities. His feedback was awesome, and that’s a great sign."

With less than a year to go until the inaugural Extreme E campaign gets underway in January 2021, run-time in-situ at a race site is key to Spark’s ongoing validation of its work on what is a unique car, with unique questions set to be thrown its way by the five formidable locations on the Season 1 calendar.

“Testing is supposed to direct development of the car and we’ve learned some valuable pieces of information already,” Gouzin continued. “For example, we substantially improved our understanding of suspension behaviours in various terrains conditions. 

“We tuned and tweaked and we now have a much finer set of solutions to face multiple scenarios. You want to see where the limits are. Iterations are at the heart of the development. This is not yet the end of it but we think we are in good shape, although testing is also about staying humble. You never know what comes next…

“We’re making the car as light, strong, fast and safe as we can. It’s nice to see we’re in the right ballpark ahead of production for the race cars getting underway.” 

Following Chicherit's time in the car, legendary off-road racer and social media star Ken Block then took the reins for the event's closing Grand Prix of Qiddiya stage on 17 January, on what would be the ODYSSEY 21's first 'competitive' outing. 

His run on the 13km stage unofficially yielded the third-fastest time among hundreds of competitors in the field, including entries from factory and manufacturer-backed efforts well-versed in the trials and challenges of Dakar competition.

“Ken Block is a serious guy and he has competed at the very top. His know-how and skillset proved to be perfectly suited to extracting the most out of the ODYSSEY 21 out on stage and it proved invaluable in building up our bank of real data and knowledge of the car's capabilities and the direction to follow in its development.

In the next couple of weeks, the E-SUV will receive the final, race-spec Williams' Advanced Engineering battery pack. Gouzin's team will be working hard to integrate the new unit ahead of the ODYSSEY 21's production run and delivery to teams later this summer.

“In February, we’ll be working on the second prototype of the car with the finalised Williams Advanced Engineering battery setup. There’s a lot of integration work with the software to come. Even before we finish this testing however, the production of the race cars will be underway, so we have a busy time ahead of us!"