Emma Gilmour: Leading the charge

In her first full season of Extreme E, McLaren’s Emma Gilmour talks to EV Powered about her goals for the season, the role of women in motorsport and what to expect from Extreme E this year.

How has life been in Extreme E so far?

It’s been a bit unusual. Everything has happened so quickly after the end of the 2021 season, then it was the first event in February and now we’re kind of waiting to go again. It was great to finally get started and to a full-time driver with McLaren and now we’ve got a full season to get some mileage under our belts and to keep building on our experience.

What do you do in the long breaks between races? How hard is it to stay prepared?

That is one of the biggest challenges with this series. We have very little time driving and there’s five events spread out over a year, so there is a lot of downtime. I’m lucky that I also have a rally programme based back here in New Zealand so I’ve been doing quite a bit of driving on gravel roads. All seat time is good seat time, but nothing quite prepares you for what Extreme E is, the unpredictably of the terrain that we race on, plus racing wheel to wheel. Being able to do some rallycross is a really nice fit with the kind of racing that Extreme E is.

What was it that attracted you to Extreme E?

When I first heard about Extreme E, I thought it was that far into the future it was like a video game. I didn’t think it was going to be real because even having a male and female team with equal driving duties, because no other motorsport has done that.

I’ve had lots of really cool opportunities by being a female in motorsport, but probably never that equal opportunity where you’re just as important as the male on the team. Then the fact that it is a brand-new motorsport with world class drivers.

You’ve got so many World Championships on the field with the likes of Carlos Sainz and Johan Kristoffersson – all these amazing drivers lining up on the start line, competing in electric vehicles which is the future of motorsport. There are so many cool things about Extreme E and it’s hugely exciting to be a part of.

How important is it that women are centre stage for Extreme E?

It’s massive. It’s one of the best things that’s happened for women in motorsport in recent times. For women to be there on an equal footing, it’s not like we’re just there to make up the numbers, we’re as important as the male drivers. I think showing how well it can be done and how successful it is and how much it opens it up to a larger audience. Especially for young kids watching at home, seeing males and females compete equally in motorsport is really exciting.

How have you found working with the team at McLaren?

They’re a fantastic team. Obviously, everyone is very, very good at what they do, so it’s so cool to be working with a team that just has so much experience on hand and whatever they do, they do it to their absolute best. We did a bit of testing together at the end of last season, so when we went into the first event this year in Saudi, we had some experience of working together. It was a very big learning curve for us and in Saudi we came in as well prepared as we could and I think we executed it really well. To get to the final in our first weekend competing together was a really great effort and it was sad how it all ended.

What makes Extreme E so exciting?

Quite often, the drivers are as surprised as the spectators at home watching as to what happens. That’s what’s really cool about Extreme E. It hasn’t taken an existing form of motorsport and electrified it and just made it male and female. They’ve taken something completely new and made it short and sharp. It’s exciting. You don’t have to invest your whole afternoon to see what happens. It all happens pretty quickly, and I think you saw in Saudi how competitive all of the teams are, so anything could happen come a race weekend.

It feels like there’s a real sense of community to Extreme E. Do you get to spend much time with the other teams and drivers?

It’s a wonderful atmosphere inside the pit lane. I think with the nature of it, going to these remote locations and we have the communal catering areas with our portable cups and all that sort of thing, it keeps it pretty down to Earth.

But I think we all appreciate that we’re at the frontier of it. We know that we have to be adaptable, and we all have respect for what each driver is up against.

When something is a bit more established, you sort of know what you’re in for, but I think with Extreme E, we’re all learning at the same rate, so you have a real empathy for your fellow drivers. Knowing how hard it is out there with the limited seat time, you have that appreciation for each other’s efforts.

What are McLaren’s goals for this season?

We’re realistic and understand that it’s a tough ask [to win the championship]. Coming in a season down on the rest of the field in a very competitive field as well. But McLaren’s heritage, means we’re here to win, we’re not here just to make up the numbers but we also understand that it’s going to take a bit of learning and that we’re going to have to learn as we go. We have our eyes on the top step of that podium but understand that there’s going to be a learning curve as part of this year.

Which races and locations are you most looking forward to this year?

I really enjoyed Sardinia last year. I don’t know how similar the course will be and if it has remnants of what it was like last season, but I really enjoyed my time there with Veloce. Senegal looked quite challenging with the dunes, and I didn’t drive it but I got an idea of what it was like. I’m really excited to be travelling to those parts of the world. I think what is so exciting about Extreme E is that you can’t go and do laps and laps on a simulator. You’ve got to be as prepared as you can with a little of knowledge that you get.

How would you sell Extreme E to someone who has never experienced it before?

To sum it up, it’s a brand-new race series that’s travelling to remote parts of the world that have never seen motor racing or probably any live sport event. There’s no proper race track as such, we’re racing cross country on fully electric vehicles with a male and female driver. A few of my friends have commented that if you didn’t have a sense of the scale, it would be like you’re watching remote control off road buggy things because they look so far out when they’re racing side by side. Anything can happen and it’s exciting racing and it’s always action packed.