LONDON: Mahindra Racing set the pace during preseason testing for the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, and the annual women’s test, at Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia this week, sending a strong signal ahead of season 12.
The annual fall outing in Spain marked the final chance for the 10 teams to validate their off-season development and fine-tune their cars for the start of the new campaign on Dec. 6 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
For Mahindra it was another statement of intent, after a breakthrough season last year under CEO and Team Principal Frederic Bertrand in which the team finished fourth out of 11, while Nyck de Vries and Edoardo Mortara took eighth and ninth spots respectively in the drivers’ championship.
The team’s new Mahindra M12Electro, an evolution of the car that last season scored five podiums for de Vries and Mortara, immediately proved competitive.
Mortara topped two of the six individual sessions, finishing the week fastest overall with a time of 1 minute 21.493 seconds around the 2-mile circuit, while de Vries was fifth, less than a tenth of a second off his teammate’s benchmark. Mortara also won Tuesday’s race simulation, with de Vries third.
“I’m happy with how the test has gone,” Mortara said. “It’s given us the opportunity to run through different testing programs, and plenty of data to take away and analyze. The car feels competitive; we have definitely made some improvements.
“It’s difficult to know what everybody else has done but we are happy and encouraged with the work that we’ve done and now we look forward to starting the season in Sao Paulo.”
De Vries said: “Overall, we can be pleased with this week in Valencia. We were able to get through our program, validate the package we will start the season with, and collect plenty of data to review in the coming weeks to keep our development cycle going.”
Noting that it was important not to get too carried away with testing, he added: “Everybody knows there are a lot of different variables at play, but the performance we’ve had this week is encouraging and we’re going to Sao Paulo with the aim of continuing to build on last season.
“In a championship as close as Formula E, executing a strong weekend makes all the difference, and this test has given us the perfect opportunity, with a consistent core team, to go through our final preparations and make sure we arrive in the best possible shape.”
On Friday, the spotlight shifted to the next generation of female drivers in the women’s test. Mahindra fielded F1 Academy star Chloe Chambers, who topped all three sessions, and the overall test with a time of 1 minute 22.767 seconds, just 1.3 seconds off Mortara’s fastest lap. She shaved eight-tenths of a second off her time between sessions, showing rapid on-track progress.
“Overall, it was a very positive day,” Chambers said. “I think I made a lot of improvements from last year’s women’s test, in terms of my driving and driving to what is needed for this car to make it go fast.
“We worked a lot on one-lap pace, and I was happy to improve my driving every time I got in the car. It was definitely a good test overall and I’ve really enjoyed this experience, working with Mahindra Racing.”
With 618 laps under the team’s belt over the course of the week, Mahindra now returns to its base in Banbury, England, to analyze the data they generated and conclude their preparations for the season opener in a little over a month.
For Bertrand it will be his fourth season at the helm, and he said: “Of course, it’s always nice to be at the top of the timesheets, but the main accomplishment from testing this week is that we’ve been able to ratify and validate our development work over the summer, and confirm the steps forward we feel we have taken with the new Mahindra M12Electro.
“A huge thanks to Nyck, Edo, Chloe and the whole team for their efforts; I’m excited for the season to get underway.”
