After missing Gen4 commitment: Will Mahindra even pull out of Formula E?

Jaguar, Lola, Nissan and Porsche: four manufacturers have already officially signed up for the fourth generation of Formula E cars. However, one manufacturer that has been involved since the second season of the electric series is still missing: Mahindra. However, there seems to be a question mark not only over its commitment as a manufacturer, but also over its participation in Formula E in general, as The Race reports.

Mahindra, like ERT and the Stellantis Group, which competes with the two brands DS Automobiles and Maserati, missed the first deadline to register as a manufacturer for the Gen4 era of Formula E. However, this does not necessarily mean anything, as later registration is also expressly envisaged. However, the four manufacturers that have already registered will have access to the data of the suppliers of the standard parts much earlier and can therefore already start planning their powertrains in concrete terms.

But apparently it is not just Mahindra's future as a manufacturer that is at stake: Now that the team has failed to finish in the top seven for five seasons in a row and a return of the teams' home race in Hyderabad to the racing calendar is more than questionable, the entire project in India appears to be under scrutiny. After all, Mahindra has only won a single Formula E race since January 2019: Alex Lynn won at the 2021 London E-Prix - which was also more than three years ago.

The administrative part of the manufacturer registration process has reportedly already been completed by the racing team, but no positive decision has yet been made by the parent company. This is required in order to place orders for parts from suppliers and to contribute to the development costs of the Gen4 racing cars. Both are prerequisites for remaining a manufacturer in the series after 2026.

"There is still a little bit of work to do," said Frederic Bertrand, CEO and Team Principal of Mahindra Racing to The Race. "On being sure about the way the championship will be managed in the future, managing costs, managing logistics, managing all the topics around the development for the next generation and within the generation."

"Maybe not the right moment to leave"

"All these are still a lot of small question marks which all together make a big question mark," Bertrand continued. "I think for everyone, it's important to have clarity there because it means cost, it means understanding of how you can also plan your business. And having those big question marks or small question marks create a kind of a question mark on the global business case."

However, the takeover of Formula E by Liberty Global could have come at the right time for Mahindra, he explains: "Liberty taking the full ownership of the championship and having an ambitious plan for developing it, it's definitely going in the right way to convince a company involved since day one that it's maybe not the right moment to leave."

"It's a bit like, if you take some parallel, some Formula 1 teams which have been sold just before it became the big Formula 1 championship we have now," he says, drawing a comparison with the top tier class of motorsport. "So, it would not be a good idea that Mahindra is missing that type of opportunity after having been a founding member of the championship. That's definitely part of the picture."

Loss of the customer team "not a drama"

As an additional complication, Mahindra now faces two seasons without a customer team. ABT Cupra had already cancelled its contract in the spring due to the disappointing performance of the Mahindra powertrain and will be racing with Lola Yamaha power from next season onwards.

"Definitely it's a loss because you lose a lot of data, you lose a lot of understanding," admits Bertrand. "And for us, because we kind of start again the process with a new powertrain (next season), I think having a customer team would be a big plus for the first races to understand the car quicker, the set-ups quicker, how we handle the car quicker. But on the other side, we’ll go back to tracks we have worked with in Gen3 already. So we have data."

"It’s not beneficial not to have a customer team," admits Bertrand. "But it’s not a drama."