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ormula One world champion, Lewis Hamilton, has announced the creation of his own Extreme E racing team, X44.

X44 will enter Season 1 of the Extreme E Championship with its first X Prix race in early 2021, with Hamilton set to help guide the creation of the racing team, meaning he will not be involved on a day-day basis.

Hamilton said his involvement in Extreme E will help him bring his “vision for a more sustainable and equal world to life”.

“Extreme E is an exciting new sustainability initiative, and this is a great opportunity to be involved from the outset as a team founder,” Hamilton said.

“Of course, my ambitions and commitments with Mercedes in Formula One mean that I won’t be operationally involved in X44, but I’m excited to play a different role in this new series, one that brings my vision for a more sustainable and equal world to life.

“Extreme E really appealed to me because of its environmental focus.

“Every single one of us has the power to make a difference, and it means so much to me that I can use my love of racing, together with my love for our planet, to have a positive impact.

“Not only will we visit remote locations facing the front line of the climate crisis, we will also work closely with these locations and leading climate experts to share our knowledge and leave behind a positive legacy in each location which goes far beyond the race track.

“As founder of X44, I am looking forward to building my team around important values such as sustainability and equality.

“None of us are perfect and we all have improvements to make, but I am excited to use our platform to highlight the most serious issues facing our planet and the solutions we can all be part of,” he said.

Extreme E founder and CEO, Alejandro Agag, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Lewis Hamilton and his X44 team to Extreme E.

“Like us, Lewis is hugely passionate about motorsport, but also shares our belief that we can use sport to highlight subjects which are vital to the world, such as climate change and equality.

“Lewis is one of the most successful drivers of all time, and we’re all excited to see how his X44 team performs on and off the race-track under his incredible guidance.

“A huge welcome to the Extreme E family Lewis!” he said.

With the announcement, X44 joins the Extreme E roster of already announced teams including Chip Ganassi Racing and Andretti United, ABT and HWA, Techeetah, QEV Technologies, and Veloce Racing.

Extreme E’s inaugural season will see teams race the all-electric off-road SUV series in five remote locations across Saudi Arabia, Nepal, Greenland, and Brazil, raising awareness of the current climate crisis in each location.