Mahindra Racing set the benchmark time in both the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship’s official pre-season test and annual Women’s Test at Valencia.
The annual trip to Spain in the autumn is the final opportunity for all ten teams competing in the FIA’s all-electric series to validate their development work over the off-season and prepare their cars for the new campaign.
Having widely-impressed last season in the latest chapter of its renaissance under CEO and Team Principal, Frederic Bertrand, and ready to ‘Scream Electric’ in Season 12, the Indian team’s newly-launched Mahindra M12Electro is an evolution of its predecessor, which scored five podium finishes in the hands of drivers Nyck de Vries and Edoardo Mortara last season.
And, in a sure sign of the team’s continued progress and status as ‘one to watch’, both drivers were immediately back among the fastest runners and competitive over both one-lap performance and longer race runs.
Mortara – twice the pace-setter across the six individual sessions of track running – ended the week with the fastest time overall, a 1:21.493 around the 2-mile layout, with de Vries close behind in fifth, less than a tenth of a second off his team-mate’s benchmark.
Notably, Mortara was also ‘victorious’ in Tuesday afternoon’s Race Simulation, a non-competitive session designed primarily to test the FIA’s safety systems and procedures, with de Vries third on the road at the chequered flag.
With official testing complete, the stage was set on Friday for the next generation of female talent to take center stage, during the annual Formula E Women’s Test, with Mahindra running F1 Academy star, Chloe Chambers.
Chambers picked up where Mortara and de Vries left off, topping each of the three-hour sessions and the test overall, her benchmark an impressive 1:22,767, just 1.3 seconds off the best time of the week, in only her second outing in a Gen3 Evo Formula E car.
Remarkably, Chambers’ improved by a staggering eight tenths of a second between both sessions, showing both rapid pace on track, and rapid development off it.
With a total of 618 laps completed across the week, the team now heads back to base in Banbury, UK, to analyse the data collected and make final preparations for the season opener in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Saturday, 6th December.
Reflecting on a week in which he was an ever-present at the sharp end of the field, Edoardo Mortara said:
I’m happy with how the test has gone, it’s given us the opportunity to run through different testing programmes, and plenty of data to take away and analyse.
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.
Having similarly impressed on board the #21 car, Nyck de Vries commented:
Overall, we can be pleased with this week in Valencia. We were able to get through our programme, 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.
It’s important not to get too carried away with testing, 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.
Having impressed on her second outing in a GEN3 Evo-spec Formula E car, Chloe Chambers said:
Overall, it was a very positive day. 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.
Ready for his fourth season at the helm of the team, Mahindra Racing CEO and Team Principal, Frederic Bertrand, concluded:
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.
What’s important now is that we’re going to Sao Paulo with a car we believe will be competitive, so the focus on our side is to keep motivation, keep our concentration levels up and focus on a strong execution, because this can make a huge difference in a championship like Formula E.
It’s a championship of fine margins, but I believe we have the finest people, and this can make a big difference. A huge thanks to Nyck, Edo, Chloe and the whole team for their efforts; I’m excited for the season to get underway!
Source: Mahindra Racing
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