There are still few movements that are taking place in Extreme E ahead of the 2022 season. It is true that Andretti United will repeat in the contest with Timmy Hansen and Catie Munnings for the second year and McLaren has confirmed its debut in the series with Tanner Foust and Emma Gilmour as drivers, but these are the exceptions in a scene of certain stillness. Maybe for that reason, the signing of the Spanish Christine Giampaoli by the Veloce Racing team has caught many by surprise. The former Hispano Suiza rider will face her second Extreme E campaign with the British team’s Odyssey 21. The male rider who will be paired with Giampaoli has yet to be revealed, although Lance Woolridge is the main candidate to fill this position.
In a short social media post, Veloce Racing confirmed the signing of the Spanish for the new season: «We are really happy to announce that Christine Giampaoli will be part of our racing couple for the 2022 season of Extreme E. Welcome to the Veloce family, Christine. Almost in parallel, Giampaoli responded to the team’s publication with a video, also published on their profiles on social networks: «I am speaking to you from here, from the glacial cold of Andorra, just to say that I am very happy and excited to live this new adventure with the Veloce Racing team. I am very grateful for this opportunity, but also very prepared for the new season. See you soon”.
Veloce didn’t have the expected debut season on Extreme E. The team decided to bet on Stéphane Sarrazin and Jamie Chadwick as their duo of drivers, but the accidents suffered by the French and the absences of the British, focused on revalidating their W Series title, they were too great a burden for the team to find the necessary competitiveness. Emma Gilmour replaced Chadwick in two of the five events, while Lance Woolridge took the place of Sarrazin in the last appointment of the year, once the Frenchman was already out of the team. Fruit of this movement, Woolridge is the rider with the most options to team up with Christine Giampaoli in the 2022 season of Extreme E, within the objective of Veloce to completely renew its project for the new year.