Winning formula: Hydrogen to power motorsport vehicles and production tech

IBC

It’s only been four years since the debut of electric off-road racing series Extreme-E but later this year it will relaunch as the first competitive motorsport powered by hydrogen.

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Extreme-H is in a race to pole position ahead of endurance championship 24 Hours of Le Mans which will have a new hydrogen category from 2026. The FIA sanctioned motorsport is a rebrand of Extreme-E, which is now ended, run by the same organisers and largely featuring the same teams and drivers but with a new sustainability message.

“Racing has the ability to accelerate innovation,” says Ali Russell, managing director, Extreme H. “The rule of thumb is 10 years of R&D is worth one year of racing. We want to be that platform. No one else is doing hydrogen and we feel this is the right time for us to show that hydrogen can be developed in some extreme locations. If you can drive in extreme locations, then you can drive a hydrogen car in London or Paris.”

Extreme-H will likely be hosted in Saudi Arabia in a desert location near Qiddiya City, not far from Riyadh, which is being turned by the Saudi’s into a extreme sports and e-sports resort.

In a change from Extreme-H which had multiple locations spread over a year, Ex-H will be World Cup style event running over 9 days and featuring three motorsport competitions. Details are being ironed out but likely will feature multi-car racing like Extreme-E; a point-to-point rally time trial over a longer distance and head to head hill climbing where competitors start from the bottom of the plateau and race uphill to a final point. The nine day event will culminate in a multi-car race with the winner taking the overall Championship.

The reinvention of Extreme-E came at a cost. The sport and its teams did not have the resources to develop the new technology at the same time as running the final season of Extreme-E with the result that the last few races of the Extreme-E calendar in 2024 were cancelled. Teams backed by

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg pulled their teams out of the 2024 season and have yet to confirm plans to join the hydrogen revolution.  Jenson Button, team owner of the JBXE team, and Carlos Sainz, owner of team Acciona Sainz XE, remain committed

Formula 1 itself has mandated the use of 100% sustainable fuel derived from 'Advanced Sustainable Components' (ASCs), such as non-food biomass or municipal waste, from 2026 and plans to be net zero as a sport by 2030.

Extreme E claimed several achievements which will be continued and reinforced in the new series.

“We were able to show how a sport could be reimagined from a sustainability point of view,” Russell explains. “Using the Saint Helena (a cargo vessel which transported equipment between race venues on different continents) cut our carbon footprint by 75 percent. Rather than 10,000 people travelling to a tiny village of 500 inhabitants in Greenland, we were able to showcase the sport with a very small numbers of participants on the ground.”

The venture demonstrated that EVs could deliver “incredible” performance for motorsport including in extreme climates of cold, high humidity or at altitude. “We were able to prove that the future is non-fossil fuel,” he says.

In addition, the series’ “secret weapon” was introducing gender parity to the competition. Each Extreme-E team fielded a male and female driver taking alternate sets of laps as driver and co-driver and racing head-to-head on equal terms. British driver Catie Munnings consistently beat the lap times of her Andretti Altawkilat team mate Timmy Hansen.

As with Extreme-E, each team in Extreme-H will compete using the same basic vehicle. This is the Pioneer 25, a bespoke electric car built by Spark Racing Technology that runs on a hydrogen-electric powertrain. BMW, Honda, Hyundai and Toyota among other manufacturers could provide their own 75kW hydrogen fuel cell technology which will also feed into their development of hydrogen powered commercial cars. The gas itself will be green hydrogen which is generated from renewable sources.

The motorsport’s transition to hydrogen is backed by sponsors including PIF, the Saudi investment fund, which is investing USD5 billion in a hydrogen production facility at its NEOM megaproject in the KSA. The transition is partly calculated to help automotive manufacturers boost EV sales in emerging as markets. 

“There are a variety of different solutions to powering EVs depending on locations,” Russell explains. “South Africa, for example, lacks a consistent electric grid across the country and is subject to power outages at certain times of the day. It's very hard to get someone to switch to an EV when they don't have consistency of power to charge it. Hydrogen solutions not only enable range but helps in markets that don't have the infrastructure that we enjoy in New York, Paris, London or Hong Kong.

“To help car manufacturers to decarbonise they need live R&D labs which our Extreme racing championships ultimately provide.”

Complex editorial story

Hydrogen powered racing makes for an eye-catching headline but it's also a complex story to tell. That’s where broadcast production partner Aurora Media comes in.

“You're going to see is us dial up the innovation and the tech side of our business,” Russell says. “We've got a very strong sustainability story. We've got incredible teams and household name drivers from Formula One and World Rallycross. You will see us double down on the innovation of which these cars are at the forefront.”

Aurora Media is working to establish a remote production model which significantly cuts down on the number of personnel needed on site.

“As with Extreme E we are embedded with the team from the very concept of sporting structure and competition format right through to the actual layout of the tracks and the locations that we go in,” explains Matt Beal, Director of Broadcast - Aurora Media Worldwide.

Having a say in track design means Aurora can deliver on a key part of its brief which is to cut carbon emissions. “We can make each camera do two and sometimes even three shots. We can turn five cameras into 15 cameras. And that's about track design. We always make the conscious there for that.”

The tracks for the three Ex-H races will be built with a central paddock and OB area in the centre. One advantage of this is that it makes planning and installing the RF circuit much more efficient since one positions need not be changed for each race.

Final recees of the site will take place by end of April after which final decisions on production partner will be made. Gravity Media and Saudi-owned Alamiya Media are two options with facilities in the region with elements of remote production another option.

“The ambition will be to reduce carbon as much as possible,” says Beal although the multi-format production is more complex than for Ex-E. “This includes use of a smart grid to power our infrastructure.”

Sharing power

Leaning on lessons learned from Ex-E, the host broadcast will charge power from the same hydrogen fuel cells as the racing cars. It will run from a separate grid to maintain redundancy but will take turns with other parts of the race event in charging its generator.

In terms of editorial, Beal says Aurora will focus more on technology. “Obviously, Hydrogen is one of the stories but materials used in the construction of the cars and the tires is another.

“We want to reach out to partners to consult with and even build our on-site infrastructure and technology with sustainable materials. That's a dialogue we're starting now, and it’s an ongoing dialogue that the whole industry is having.”

Beal appeals to any IBC vendors or consultants to get in touch with suggestions of technology and sustainable materials that can reduce energy consumption. “We'd love to hear about it. We don't profess to know every nook and cranny of the industry and things move very quickly. We try and be at the vanguard and this project is the perfect platform for that. We encourage anyone to step forward.”

Content capture mechanism

In terms of output, the host broadcaster will deliver content for live streaming, social media and  digital platforms including on the ‘down’ days over the week and half event.

“It's an always-on kind of Festival much in the mould of Glastonbury. The broadcast infrastructure has to deliver to those different delivery points. This is where the whole live sports industry is heading to. The host broadcast is no longer a facility to deliver a live broadcast show. It's a content capture mechanism which requires a diverse, agile infrastructure and ecosystem.”

The new series will also tackle perceptions that the technology is unsafe. Call that the Hindenburg effect, after the fatal airship disaster of 1937.

“Motorsport can help change this perception by rigorously testing hydrogen in extreme conditions, demonstrating safe handling, storage, and refuelling practices,” explains Mark Grain, Extreme-H Technical Director.  “The competitive nature of motorsport also drives rapid innovation in safe hydrogen storage, handling, and refuelling. Success on the track can boost public confidence and set new safety standards for hydrogen use globally.”

Futuristic tech

Extreme H are currently writing the sport’s rules and regulations with governing body FIA.

“There's a huge amount of trust in the rules and the regulations that are adjudicated by the FIA,” Russell says. “Like the IOC or FIFA, the FIA are absolutely vital and a stamp of authority that major manufacturers like to see if they are to come into a Championship.

“We're creating a whole different style of racing and we've got a responsibility for that to be both safe and exciting. That's always the balance.”

Leading EV car brand Tesla has so far stayed away but Russell says the organisation is open to working with any OEM. He points to the Hydrogen Hub, a working group of 12 manufacturers monitoring the development of hydrogen technology.

“Some are involved in the Championship, others are reviewing whether they come into the Championship, but the interest is very high,” he says.

Extreme E reached a global audience of close to 150 million viewers in 2023. With no figures available for the truncated 2024 season, Extreme-H will be hoping to attract audiences back for the new championship.

“We're dialling up the technology and going into futuristic tech,” Russell says. “When we started the electric race series we were unique. Now there's multiple electric racing series on the planet. We're going to be the only motorsport series that's hydrogen. We're very bullish.”

The World Cup style format has the advantage of holding more races in a shorter period of time. “[That would] allow us to build momentum to a grand final,” Russell says. “One of the challenges we had with [Extreme E] were the gaps between the races.”

Previous locations have included sites in Germany, Scotland, Sardinia, Senegal, Saudi Arabia, Greenland and Pheonix, USA.

Alejandro Agag, Founder and CEO of Extreme H (and also of Formula E), has said that the evolution to Extreme H “makes us the first-ever testbed of hydrogen technology in motorsport – not only in our racing cars, but also transportation, infrastructure, refuelling processes and safety regulations. It’s a ground-breaking initiative. Our racing series has always been unique, but its future as Extreme H undoubtedly marks racing’s new frontier.”

Hydrogen powering live events

Extreme H partnered with Newcastle-based GeoPura to provide consultancy on the use of renewable energy to create hydrogen fuels. GeoPura’s hydrogen power units use fuel cells to convert green hydrogen into clean electricity, producing zero emissions on-site.

Its CEO Andrew Cunningham explains, “Unlike fossil fuels, hydrogen emits only water vapour when used, which means we can deliver power without harmful emissions.”

According to GeoPura the UK live event industry generate over 1 billion Kg of Co2 emissions a year from about 7000 events. Cunningham says that with the right infrastructure, hydrogen can make large-scale event power virtually emissions-free, from powering transport vehicles, to lighting, sound systems, catering, broadcasting and hospitality.

The BBC’s Natural History Unit and BBC SpringWatch / WinterWatch productions already use GeoPura hydrogen power units for filming, replacing diesel generators. Its solutions have also been used at Latitude Festival, the Isle of Wight Festival and for broadcast of PGA Tour golf and the Touch World Cup Rugby event.