Lewis Hamilton’s X44 Extreme E team heads into its third season in the all-electric off-road series with two aims – another championship title, and the longer-term objective of pushing for diversity and inclusion in motorsport.

Hamilton, along with his charitable foundation Mission44 and the Royal Academy of Engineering, launched the Hamilton Commission in June 2020 in a bid to help more people from underrepresented backgrounds find their way into motorsport, and followed that with his first foray into team ownership in Extreme E.

“I’m so proud of the incredible work that my team has undertaken so far in Extreme E, and I can’t wait for us to take it to the next level this year,” said the seven-time Formula 1 champion. “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.”

X44 already has one of the most diverse teams in Extreme E, led by Stephanie Carlin, the only female team principal in the series and boss of Rodin Carlin’s upcoming effort in the all-female F1 Academy series.

“At Rodin Carlin, we are so excited to join forces with X44 Vida Carbon Racing and I am proud to be leading such an inclusive and diverse team into Season 3 of the series,” said Carlin. “As fits with our ethos at Rodin Carlin, it is a privilege to be able to provide opportunities for up-and-coming engineers, mechanics and technicians, who we believe are truly the next generation of promising talent in our industry.”

Long-time X44 deputy team principal and sporting director Stephanie Travers has enjoyed success with Hamilton in F1. Russell Batchelor/Motorsport Images

Carlin is joined by deputy team principal Stephanie Travers, a Mercedes F1 engineer who became the first Black woman on a Formula 1 race podium at the 2020 Styrian Grand Prix and has been a part of the X44 team since the beginning.

Also on the team’s engineering squad is Hamilton Commission member George Imafidon, who goes into his third season with the team as race engineer, while Calvin Langat joins as a junior engineer as a result of Extreme E’s Racing For All initiative which grants each team an addition position to be filled by someone who otherwise wouldn’t be able to get onto the motorsport ladder.

Away from the track, the team has also pledged to ensure all of its sponsor activity is inclusive, while “working with diverse content creators to tell sustainability stories from around the world – including the global south – to provide storytelling opportunities for the next generation of aspiring social media producers.”

The third season of Extreme E begins this weekend in Saudi Arabia.