Sainz stays in Extreme E as 2022 grid takes shape

Two major moves in the championship’s driver market were announced last week.

Reigning champion Molly Taylor split with Rosberg X Racing while four-time Dakar Rally winner Nasser Al-Attiyah has replaced Mattias Ekstrom at the Abt Cupra concern.

As the entry list continues to fall into place with fewer than 10 days until the season-opening round in Neom, Saudi Arabia, rival teams have announced stable line-ups.

Two-time WRC title winner Sainz Sr will carry on alongside his two-wheel Dakar Rally expert stablemate Sanz after their car’s reliability-restricted run to sixth in the points last year.

The Extreme E programme for Sainz, 59, at the Acciona Sainz squad will supplement his involvement in the new all-electric Audi RS Q e-tron project alongside Ekstrom.

Laia Sanz, Carlos Sainz, Sainz XE Team, Jutta Kleinschmidt, Mattias Ekstrom, ABT CUPRA XE

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images

Meanwhile, Chip Ganassi Racing will hang on to the services of Kyle Leduc and Sara Price.

The American duo showed glimmers of immense pace in 2021 but were critically hurt by crashes and unreliability to consign the duo to eighth of the nine teams in the standings.

Team boss Dave Berkenfield previously told Autosport: “We’ve seen lots of little moments of really good stuff from Kyle and Sarah.

“The pace is there. I’m less worried about that. I’m more worried about consistency and driving smart.

“For our team right now, it’s defining the race craft, getting the car to the finish and bringing Kyle and Sarah into that mindset.”

Andretti United (Timmy Hansen and Catie Munnings) plus Lewis Hamilton’s X44 (Sebastien Loeb and Cristina Gutierrez) have also named unchanged line-ups for the new season.

With McLaren Racing making its debut with