Lanna Campbell is one of the five candidates joining Extreme E through Racing for All initiative. She worked with the Andretti Altawkilat Extreme E team during Hydro X Prix. We recently caught up with Lanna to hear about her experience with Extreme E, here is what she shared with us.
All photos © Andretti Altawkilat Extreme E
Living on the Isle of Arran, a small island in Scotland, Lanna grew up in a family passionate about motorsport. Lanna inherited the enthusiasm from her parents as a kid. “I grew up around cars and motorsport. My parents are huge motorsport fans. My mother is a huge Formula 1 fan and my father loves rally.”
Even though she has only just graduated from high school, our young Lanna has already gathered a lot of hands-on experience working on cars. “I’ve always helped my dad out with cars since a young age. We would buy a car, work on it in our driveway, and then sell it off. So I just always wanted to work around cars.”
Then came the opportunity to work on some electric off-road race cars. “I found out about the Racing for All initiative through a platform called Slenky that one of my old school teachers told me about. They had a shot from a partnership with Andretti. I like the initiative behind Extreme E. It’s clean racing. They do projects to help with the environment. So when I found out about the opportunity, I thought that there was no harm in applying it. I didn’t really expect to get the position. But I went for it anyway.”
Clearly, Lanna was impressive enough through the interview process. She heard from the Andretti Altawkilat Extreme E and joined them for Hydro X Prix, which was also taking place in Scotland on the former Glenmuckloch opencast coal mine site in Dumfries and Galloway. Lanna sure had a lot of experience working on cars before, but working on an electric race car was a first for her. “On my first day with the team, I was shadowing other team members, our engineers and mechanics. I also had the safety training that day, because it is an electric car. Then on the next day, they let me help with the car. I got to work on the car. I was wrapping the bodywork, making sure it was looking all good to send the car out. I was just helping the team out wherever I could. It was so surreal being around a race car. Race cars are just simpler to work on because there’s not a whole lot to them. This is also my first time near an electric car. It was quite surreal to be told to always make sure to look at the light, make sure the car is safe to touch.”
I really just loved working on the car. It’s therapeutic for me to work on cars. It’s great fun!!!
Having been a motorsport fan through her family almost her whole life, this is only the first time Lanna has been this close to the action. The intensiveness of the race weekend definitely left an impression. “It was a lot more intense than I expected it to be. Obviously, when you’re watching motorsport, you don’t see the behind-the-scenes. So it was great to experience all of that. It was great.”
An intense race weekend surely comes with challenges. But Lanna was able to manage her first race weekend with ease. “We were in Scotland, so it was really wet during the race weekend. There was some damage to our car and it was really muddy. Then there was also the long hours. It was a very long day which I wasn’t used to, but I got used to it.”
We were on the podium on Saturday. So I got to experience both the highs and lows of a race weekend. I got to drink nice, expensive champagne!
As her first step into the motorsport world, Extreme E also gave Lanna a great opportunity to experience one key aspect of motorsport – teamwork. “Experiencing proper teamwork and being a part of the team was really valuable for my future endeavors. It’s really intimate, and everyone knows what they’re doing. They all have a set role and just seeing that made me feel pretty good.”
The seed is now planted, and Lanna is ready to pursue her next step in motorsport. “I don’t have many opportunities on our island. My plan is to hopefully move away from the island this year and then see what happens. I’d like to apply for some apprenticeships with some local race teams. I loved the rally aspect of Extreme E. I would also love to be an F1 mechanic one day.”
And for anyone else who would like to follow in her footsteps, here is Lanna’s advice. “Just keep looking. If you see an opportunity, apply. There’s no harm in being rejected. If you see an opportunity, just take it.”
Paddock Sorority 
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