• Nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb will drive for Lewis Hamilton's off-road racing team.
• Loeb and Cristina Gutierrez will compete in the Extreme E series under Hamilton's X44 team.
• The race series takes place in remote parts of the world and is aimed at raising the profile of climate change.
Lewis Hamilton on Friday revealed he had signed nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb for his Extreme E team, a motorsport series aimed at raising the profile of global environmental issues.
Also joining the seven-time Formula 1 world champion's team is Spain's Cristina Gutierrez, who in 2017 became the first woman to finish the Dakar Rally.
Loeb and Gutierrez will race for the X44 team in the inaugural Extreme E season which begins in 2021.
"I'm delighted to welcome Sebastien and Cristina to X44," said Hamilton.
"They are both incredible drivers and I'm looking forward to seeing what they're going to do out there at each race.
"Cristina is an upcoming talent with a great future ahead of her, and Sebastien is a driver I have admired for so many years so I'm so proud and excited to have them on board."
We’re so excited to welcome 4x Dakar Rally finisher @cris_tortu and 9x World Rally Champion @SebastienLoeb to X44.
— X44 (@TeamX44) December 11, 2020
Hands up ?? who guessed it right??#TeamX44 pic.twitter.com/3ktDsIlGwB
The championship, which features electric off-road SUV vehicles, will start in March.
It will be raced in five remote locations deemed to be already damaged or severely under threat of climate change from a range of issues including melting ice caps, deforestation and rising sea levels.
The five sites chosen include races in the Amazon region of Brazil and in the Arctic in Greenland.
