Tires for extreme E Series to feature ContiConnect Tire management solution

Starting in March 2021, the new Extreme E off-road racing series will be taking professional motor racing in electric SUVs to the furthest corners of the planet. The event calendar includes races in the desert of Saudi Arabia, in Senegal, in the rainforest of Brazil and in the glacier region of Patagonia. Not only will the teams need to cope with very different climates; they will also have to master extremely difficult terrain on courses that will challenge the tires in particular. And indeed, the tires have been specially developed for the task by Continental, a Founding Partner in Extreme E.

Extreme racing scenarios put extreme demands on the tires

“The races are not going to be held at standardized racetracks with similar asphalt surfaces,” says Sandra Roslan, Project Manager at Continental, describing the exceptional challenge ahead. “Instead, the teams will be racing in natural settings and over variable and very different surfaces, including sand, gravel, scree, mud and ice.” Then there are the typical situations encountered in racing, like extreme acceleration, heavy braking, high speeds even through tight corners, drifts and even jumps. But the tires will also be stressed by the nature of the cars themselves, also specially developed for this particular series. The SUVs go by the name of ODYSSEY 21 and serve up the electrical equivalent of almost 550 hp, giving them three times the torque of a Formula E Gen 2 racer. At the wheel of each car is a professional racing driver eager to get the absolute maximum out of the vehicle and its tires. “Given this exceptional constellation, we are talking about the biggest challenge that tires have ever had to face in motor sport,” says Sandra Roslan. To enable the drivers to take their tires to the limit throughout the races while maintaining maximum safety for their cars and themselves, the SUVs are equipped with a special tire monitoring system.

Digital link to the tires makes the races that much safer

During the race, the ContiConnect tire management solution collects and transmits data such as tire pressure and temperature in real time. A sensor inside each tire constantly measures and analyzes this data and presents it to the driver on a display in the cockpit. Changes in tire pressure and temperature trigger an optical and acoustic signal to warn the driver, who can then act accordingly, helping to prevent tire failure. At the same time, the tire data is also transmitted to the monitors and computers of the technical support team and stored for analysis after the race.

How the digital tire management solution works

The ContiConnect tire management solution has proven itself in practice around the world. It was originally developed together with and for the commercial vehicle industry as a retrofit solution and since 2013 has been gradually expanded and supplemented in line with user needs. ContiConnect enables fleet managers to access the pressure and temperature data of the tires on their entire fleet via a web portal. Tire data is transferred to the web portal in one of two ways, either stationary – when the vehicle drives past a yard reader station – or live, with the vehicle out on the road, by means of the ContiConnect Driver App which also keeps the driver informed.

The Extreme E off-road race series is being organized in conjunction with Formula E. From 2021 onwards, Continental will be a Premium Sponsor of the Extreme E series. The technology company will be equipping all the vehicles with tires for the diverse and extremely demanding conditions that they will encounter. Promoters Formula E Holdings Ltd. expect ten teams to take part in the first season.