Interview: Emma Gilmour discusses Extreme E's growth and improving opportunities for women in motorsport

The Extreme E championship continues this weekend with the penultimate round held in Chile as the Copper X-Prix takes centre stage.

The championship is being held over five rounds and is in its second year, with races taking place in Saudi Arabia, Sardinia, Chile and Uruguay.

A series that has stood out both for its environmental awareness mission and bid for better equality in introducing female/male driver pairings, it’s one of the most progressive motorsport championships around.

Still in its embryonic years, we spoke to NEOM McLaren XE driver Emma Gilmour to get her thoughts on the championship’s growth and getting more women into driving seats.

“I think definitely the interest is building because it’s such an exciting series,” says Gilmour.

“Once someone watches it for the first time, they’re kind of hooked, they don’t have to have been a motorsport fan in the past, because it’s so different.

“It’s not like they’ve taken an existing kind of motorsport and electrified it and added boys and girls, you know, it’s totally new. And I think that’s what captures people’s interests.

“The fact that it’s short, sharp racing, you don’t have to invest whole afternoon into it, you know, it’s over pretty quickly. So it’s exciting for people that tune in and I think that’s where interest in it is building in terms of the competitiveness, I think they’re learning as we go.

“So as we keep making the tracks better, the competition is definitely getting closer and faster and that makes a bit of spectacle as well. So I think the series is just getting improving each round we do.”

As Gilmour mentions, part of Extreme E’s make-up is that the driver line-ups are female/male, making it stand out from the rest in the motorsport field.