Mahindra on the rise in FE – and still aiming higher

A lot has been made of Mahindra Racing’s competitive journey throughout GEN3 of Formula E.

After two seasons languishing in 10th place, an overhaul of the team and its hardware brought a sizable step forward last year as it finished fourth with five podium finishes for Nyck de Vries and Edoardo Mortara. The team now finds itself exactly where it wants to be, but of course it's not enough and it's set its sights on even more lofty goals this season.

“Obviously we are content with the finish of last season, and generally, it was a positive season as we've been able to make so much progress,” de Vries told RACER. “But equally, we have bigger ambitions. This is only the beginning.”

But the coming season will be the last of the current ruleset and the second of the current homologation cycle, meaning that continuity is likely. Because of that, de Vries knows the team will have a task on its hands if it is to continue making steps forward.

“That doesn't mean that we expect to just start where we finish and go ahead from here,” de Vries said. “We are aware of the challenges ahead of us, and obviously the teams are all very close. 

“Naturally, in the last year of a generation of cars, that clusters even more together. Everyone has kind of figured out the headline points, but you need to now find some edge over your competition in very small and minor details, and that's going to be an exciting, interesting challenge ahead of us.”

A key string to Mahindra’s bow will be continuity with its driver lineup. De Vries and Mortara will be entering the third year of their partnership, while the last three teams’ champions – Envision, Jaguar and Porsche – along with Season 9 drivers’ champions Andretti, and the two Stellantis teams, DS Penske and Citroen (formerly Maserati) will all have changes to their driver lineups.

“I think continuity is very important in any organization,” said de Vries. "I think we are proud of the fact that we've been able to keep the whole team as it is.

“Last year we obviously had a new car, new hardware that was kind of unknown for us. Potentially, we kind of started a little bit on the back foot, so we had to catch up. And now we go into a year where we kind of know what to expect. So that's a great starting point, but it's not a given.”

Team principal Frederic Bertrand agrees, suggesting that the familiar driver pairing will help the team continue its strong momentum.

“What is good is that the momentum we had, we can keep and probably even maybe improve, because we kept everyone – so the same drivers, the same team around the drivers, the same spirit behind the team now, and the fact that we have been able to unlock points podiums, has changed the mindset,” he told RACER. “It’s the first time we can start the season and say, ‘Okay, we need to win this season’.

“We know it will not depend only on us, but definitely on our side, we have everything set to do things properly, because stability and consistency are there.”

While the season is yet to kick off in earnest, although Mahindra continued to make its intentions known with the fastest two times in the second day of pre-season testing in Valencia, attention is already on next year and the arrival of the GEN4 package, which will deliver a huge step up in performance.

Mahindra is the only one of the current powertrain suppliers yet to publicly declare its intention to compete, but Bertrand says that isn’t a cause for concern.

“No news, good news,” he said. “But we will be there. 

“We will be there, we just try to identify the best way of being there to keep the momentum on the performance. So right now the focus is on [Season] 12 because you see that the level of expectation… that's a bit of pressure, but it's good, because it shows that the level of understanding and involvement and commitment to the championship is high.

“So GEN4 is no doubt. We will be there. In which format? I don't know yet, but it will be a performant one.”