Fraser McConnell joins Lewis Hamilton’s Extreme E team

JAMAICA’S ONLY rallycross driver Fraser McConnell will join X44 Vida Carbon Racing, the Extreme E Team founded by Seven-Time Formula 1 Champion Sir Lewis Hamilton.

X44 Vida Carbon Racing is a series that recognises that motorsport has traditionally been dominated by a narrow demographic, an issue that team owner Sir Lewis Hamilton is dedicated to addressing.

McConnell will join season two winner and World Champion Cristina Gutiérrez as his race partner, with a renewed focus on breaking down these barriers and creating a more diverse and inclusive environment within the sport.

McConnell is excited about this latest development.

“I am delighted to join X44 Vida Carbon Racing, and to be part of a Championship-winning team. I’m impressed with Cristina’s performances in the first two seasons of Extreme E and can’t wait to drive alongside her and put Jamaica in the motorsport conversation here. I hope to learn a lot from her prior experience. It’s never a bad thing to race alongside a World Champion!” said McConnell.

Cristina Gutiérrez also looks forward to racing with the Jamaican.

“Following last season’s win, I am so excited to get back on track and give it my all again for the team. Fraser is an exciting young Jamaican talent and I am looking forward to racing with him this year. I feel privileged to be part of the journey towards a fairer, more inclusive industry.”

McConnell, winner of the 2019 American Rallycross Championship, is the most competitively successful Jamaican driver in the history of international rallycross racing. Making his rallycross debut in 2018, McConnell recorded the fastest-out-of-the-box time in his first race and went on to win all of his heats, starting his first finals in pole position.

His maiden international racing campaign came just one year later, with Olsbergs MSE in the FIA RX2 Championship, where he finished fourth among the world’s best young rallycross drivers.

In 2021, McConnell graduated to the supercar class and became the first and only Jamaican to claim a supercar victory in the RallyX Nordic Championship, going on to debut in the Nitro Rallycross Series later that year.

X44 Vida Carbon Racing Owner and Seven-Time Formula 1™ World Champion Sir Lewis Hamilton is also looking forward to season 3.

“We know from the findings of The Hamilton Commission that the motorsport industry is an incredibly difficult place to break into, and I hope that X44 Vida Carbon Racing can be a powerful platform to provide opportunities to the next generation. It has never been more important that we, as an industry, take real action to move our sport forward, and X44 Vida Carbon’s new direction is one of the ways I am committing to making that genuine change,” said Hamilton.

McConnell will make his debut at the start of season 3 on Saturday at the Desert X Prix in Saudi Arabia.