Mahindra Racing CEO Frederic Bertrand downplays expectations for 2024 season – “It’s a long-term plan; it’s not a sprint race, it’s a marathon.”
Mahindra will race with an all-new livery in the upcoming 2024 Formula E season. The Indian manufacturer has been part of the all-electric racing championship since its very first season in 2014 and the new livery celebrates that, with ten of Mahindra’s twin-peak logos on the engine cover – one for each year of competition.
The new livery has been designed in partnership with Mahindra Advanced Design Europe (MADE) and consists of the colours red, silver and desert grey. For the first time in the team’s history, its race car sports a matte finish.
- Nyck de Vries, Edoardo Mortara to drive for Mahindra Racing
- New season kicks off in January 2024
- Hyderabad E-Prix on February 10
Season of changes for Mahindra
The M9Electro struggled with reliability and efficiency this year, resulting in Mahindra finishing 10th in the 2023 Formula E championship. Speaking at a press conference earlier this year, CEO Frederic Bertrand explained that Mahindra’s early podium finish in Mexico “created a lot of expectations”, and while the team was strong on the racing operations side, it was struggling on the technical side. “The team to create the right car was not necessarily 100 percent in place. So, you always suffer for what has not been done,” he admitted.
In a bid to climb up the pecking order, some big changes have been made at Mahindra. The team has an all-new driver line-up, with 2021 Formula E champion and former F1 driver Nyck de Vries joining former Maserati driver Edoardo Mortara. Both drivers have signed multi-year contracts with the team. And Mahindra Racing has also signed F2 racer Kush Maini as its new reserve driver.
But that’s not all; “On the technical side, we have structured the team in a very different way. We have reinforced the manufacturer side,” Bertrand adds. “So, we have more people ready to study, prepare for the future, work on next year’s car and even on the Gen 4 car right now.”
Mahindra downplays expectations for 2024 Formula E season
Despite the sweeping changes, Bertrand remains realistic about his target for the upcoming 2024 season. After all, the two-season homologation rule means the team will have to field the same car in 2024, too, although it can make some software tweaks to find added performance.
“We will be faster, but will it have an effect on our ranking? [That’s] difficult to say right now,” he said. “Right now, we come with an open-minded approach. We say ‘Okay, let’s learn as much as we can’ so that we can prepare the car for Season 11 and 12 in a much better way.”
“We will shave to survive Season 10. We will progress [in seasons] 11 and 12, and we will progress after. It’s a long-term plan; it’s not a sprint race, it’s a marathon.”
The 2024 Formula E season gets underway with the Mexico City E-Prix on January 13. The Hyderabad E-Prix has also been confirmed to return, with the race scheduled for February 10.
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