Beijing, Apr 22 (IANS): The upcoming all-electric off-road Extreme E racing series is to run as scheduled in 2021, series founder Alejandro Agag said on Tuesday.

Although the current COVID-19 outbreak has severely disrupted global motorsport, with many events cancelled or postponed, Agag said the inaugural Extreme E championship was "still on track and still on schedule" to begin as planned in Lac Rose, Senegal in January 2021, reports Xinhua news agency.

Aimed at raising awareness of climate change, Extreme E will feature drivers competing across the globe in an elimination-style tournament, with the Senegal round followed by events in the desert of Saudi Arabia, the Himalayas, Greenland's glaciers and the Amazon rainforest.

A repurposed cargo ship will serve as a floating paddock, transporting all the series' facilities and providing living quarters when docked at the various stops.

Owing to the remoteness of the various locations, Extreme E will not feature spectators on site, and Agag noted that the series' unique structure would fit well with social distancing measures.

"When we designed Extreme E we didn't know there was going to be a pandemic," Agag said. "But Extreme E is almost a virus-proof sport."

"We have no public at our events and we are contained on a ship, so we can test everyone that goes on the ship," he added.

"We can make sure the ship is COVID-19 free and we can then carry on the sport and broadcast it to the world."

Agag was speaking at a press conference to unveil a four-person scientific panel to assess and set Extreme E's environmental objectives.

The committee's Head is Professor Peter Wadhams of the University of Cambridge, who is Extreme E's resident Arctic scientist.