The 2022 Extreme E championship continues this weekend in Chile at the Copper X-Prix, and we spoke to NEOM McLaren XE drivers Emma Gilmour and Tanner Foust to look ahead to round four, as well as to reflect on the season so far.

McLaren have embarked on their first year in Extreme-E and it's been a season, both drivers admit, that has had its ups and downs with them currently sitting 8th in the championship.

Whilst they've been pleased with their overall pace, the series can be unforgiving at times and you sometimes need a slice of luck to get the result you deserve. Both Emma and Tanner are excited for this penultimate round of the year, though, with qualifying in Chile getting underway later this afternoon:

"It's been frustrating," begins Emma when asked by Give Me Sport about this season to date.

"Because as a team we've shown we've had good speed. But we've had a few things that have been sort of outside of our control that has prevented us from sometimes having an easier run through to the finals, and all those kind of things.

"But it's probably also highlighted how challenging Extreme E is and you're competing against the world's best from lots of different disciplines. You need to bring your A-game to every event plus you also have to have a bit of luck and we haven't had that bit of luck really, this season so far.

"But it's exciting being now at round four, where it's a brand new event for everyone - no one's done the track before. And I think that's great because we've been working really together as a team getting stronger. And then we can really put that into practice now, on this brand new track."

"I think we started out of the gates pretty strong, both on pace, making the final set the expectations pretty high," says Tanner on the campaign up to this point.

"And then rolling two out of the first three events set things back quite a bit. And the way the points work is if you roll and don't finish or win the crazy race and qualify for the final, the gap in points is dramatic.

"So points-wise, we've had to take a step back and be like, alright this is what we need to excel as a team. And we need to continue to improve every time which I think we've done. It's a small team as part of the whole [idea of] having a small footprint in these locations. And so the communication gets really strong when you have a small team and I think we've really moved forward with that.

"First practice we've come out with very competitive times right off the bat, the car feels good right out of the bat, where in the past we wouldn't have had a clue what to expect once we got in the machine, so it just shows we are improving. And that puts more pressure and momentum into good results so we'd like to convert that pace into good results here."

As has been mentioned, this weekend sees the series in a new environment in Chile with the track completely new to everyone in the field, and both McLaren drivers have been excited by what they've seen so far of the course:

"It's interesting," says Emma.

"I've just driven it this morning for the first time. Something unique about Extreme-E is that you walk the course so it's quite challenging walking something, especially a really high-speed track, and then really coming out [in the car] a lot faster.

"It's a really nice track, it's definitely the widest track that we've raced on. I mean you could argue in Saudi that it was a wide track, but it was pretty rough so there was only a single line.

"It's cool they've used the natural contours of the elevation changes so there are lots of natural jumps. It's like they've kind of taken a rallycross track and created it in the middle of nowhere. So it's yeah, it's pretty exciting."

"I think this is my favorite track," adds Tanner.

"I've only been out on it once. But this track is a different discipline. It's about rolling speed. It's about getting off the brake and flowing and having a sustained momentum through kind of a flowing course. Yes, there is a checkup or two on some of the jumps but it's much less about memorising the course and more getting creative around which bush you go to the left or right of, for example.

"I'd spent so many hours at night in Saudi Arabia, for example, or in Sardinia just learning the track from video, and so then I felt like you really had an advantage if you had raced similar tracks the year before as most of the teams had in Sardinia. But with this one, we're all starting new. There's a nice pace to the track. You really can push the Odyssey more I think speed-wise than any track we've been on and it seems to like it so it's a lot of fun!"

So, as we head towards qualifying later today, how are they feeling about this particular weekend?

"We've got stronger and stronger at each event we've done together," says Emma, "and I think we're both good."

"This track is fast so I think we can be competitive. It's going to be a case of just trying to make as few mistakes as possible, just having a really clean event, have a really clean qualifying, and make sure we have a good second qualifying when we're racing against other vehicles and then just try and get into that final.

"It's just a really competitive championship so you just need to do everything really, really well."