Adrian Newey launches motorsport team

Red Bull Racing’s chief technical officer, Adrian Newey, and racing driver, Jean-Éric Vergne, has launched a new motorsport team, Veloce Racing, to enter the radical Extreme E racing series in 2021.

The environmentally-led series will take places across harsh environments in a bid to raise awareness of those areas. They include Greenland, Himalayas, Desert, Rainforest and Indian Ocean Island, where issues  such as deforestation, rising sea levels and plastic pollution are prevalent. A final five-event calendar will be announced in due course.

The series is the brainchild of the team behind the Formula E racing series, including Formula E founder Alejandro Agag.

The Veloce Racing Management Team will also include Daniel Bailey, Rupert Svendsen-Cook and Jack Clarke and Harrison Newey. Darryl Eales (former CEO of LDC) and Andy Webb (former CEO of Marussia F1) will be co-chairs.

Bailey, 28, is co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of sports marketing agency, MPA, while Newey Jnr is a successful racing driver. The 21-year-old currently races in Japan’s Super Formula single-seater series and joins Veloce Racing as Business Development Director.

Svendsen-Cook and Clarke, along with Vergne, are the co-founders of Veloce Esports; the industry-leading gaming organisation, active across a spectrum of titles and disciplines with multiple teams operating under its umbrella, including Alfa Romeo Racing Esports and Fernando Alonso Racing Esports.

The inaugural Extreme E championship will commence in 2021, using electric SUV vehicles to race off-road in extremely remote parts of the world. Extreme E’s new E-SUV will have a full testing programme mid-way through 2020.

Adrian Newey, commented: “We are delighted to be announcing the launch of Veloce Racing, as well as confirming our place as a fully-fledged licensee entrant into Extreme E.

“The series is an exceptional platform for drawing attention to the earth’s environmental challenges and driving change. Veloce will play an active role in as many of Extreme E’s legacy projects as possible to help re-generate the local environments.

“We also believe that Hydrogen is a fuel source to be seriously considered for the future and we will take great pride in playing our part in encouraging Extreme E to adopt Hydrogen in its next generation Extreme E-SUVs.

“Everyone involved in Veloce Racing is extremely passionate about racing, competition and cutting-edge technology, as well as tackling environmental issues that face the world today, so we couldn’t be happier to be taking part in Extreme E – we can’t wait to get started!”