Mahindra engineer Malte Senst exclusively: "It is up to the engineer how fast the car arrives in turn 1"

Mahindra Racing was one of the big surprises in Formula E Season 11. The team finished the season in fourth place in the team standings, its best result since 2017-18, the last season in the Gen1 era. Compared to the previous season, the points haul more than tripled, allowing the team to improve by a total of six positions.

There are several reasons for Mahindra Racing's greatly improved performance: In addition to a new powertrain, which the team now sources from US manufacturer MTS Power Systems based in Farmingdale, New York, following the end of its partnership with ZF Friedrichshafen, the M11Electro has modified rear axle geometry and improved vehicle dynamics control systems. Malte Senst, with whom we were able to speak exclusively, is particularly responsible for the latter.

Who are you and what do you do in Formula E?

I'm Malte, I'm 28 years old and I work at Mahindra Racing as a Controls Performance Engineer. This role is very, very versatile. On the one hand, I am responsible for the development of the vehicle dynamics control systems - brakes, ABS through to the traction system. It's also about evaluating performance-relevant powertrain functions with the drivers. That is a very diverse spectrum.

How long have you been with Mahindra?

I joined the team last year. Before that, I was at ABT for two years and did customer support for Mahindra. Here I was a support engineer for the powertrain and the complete VCU software. It's not just about the brakes and traction, but also many other things, such as the dashboard and diagnostics. I've been in charge of that for the last two years with the customer team. In general, however, I have been working for Mahindra since 2022.

What does that mean in concrete terms, using the brakes as an example? I think it's very difficult for a layperson to understand that.

The brake is about how the braking torque is distributed between the front MGU and the rear MGU. It's also about how you can also use the friction brake (on the front axle). This is exciting and varies from track to track.

"I see the whole picture from the software and car level"

And here you work together with the driver and the race engineer?

In contrast to the classic performance engineer, I'm not directly on the car. We have one race engineer and one performance engineer per car, who work with the driver to work out exactly how the car should brake from corner to corner. My role is more that I generally look at how my colleagues operate this scene. At the same time, I am always a point of contact for the performance engineers.

My job is also to explain complex things in this area to the drivers - but also to understand what the race engineers or performance engineers need. What are the requirements for the software and how can this be realised? I also look at the limitations in terms of legality and the maximum values on the powertrains. The performance engineer only looks to ensure that the car goes round the corner quickly. I, on the other hand, see the whole picture on the software and car level (laughs).

So you're also responsible for taking the findings from the race weekends and incorporating them into development so that you're better positioned for the next race?

Exactly. The aim is to have consistency, both in terms of car set-up but also in terms of operating. It's not the case that we find a new wheel for every race. But in general, there are still points here and there where you can adjust the regulation - which you can see in the data from the last few years or in the data from the simulator. It's always my job to adjust these subtleties before the race.

"We basically had to start from scratch"

Mahindra changed the supplier of the powertrain before the season, so it now uses completely different hardware. Were you able to build on the Gen3 level at all at the software level?

As it is a completely new supplier, we had to start from scratch, so to speak. But of course we also had developers in our team who already had Formula E experience, including with the old powertrain. With our new powertrain, we had more freedom with our developers to structure the software, including together with the developers on the MTS side.

Do you develop the software on your own? And what comes from the manufacturer?

We have specified and developed the software that runs at car level. So: How much power and how much torque do we call up? When are we limited by the torque, when are we limited by the power, when are we limited by the speed? We control all of that. There are also a few functions with FIA legality that have to be regulated by the manufacturer. But all the algorithms for the commutation of the electric motor and all the low-level applications are from the supplier.

What is the biggest part of your work when you get to the racetrack? Or has this already been done in the simulator and the preparation?

We use the simulator the week before a race and also have several meetings there. This is about the car set-up and how we set up the braking system. In Jakarta, for example, there is a lot of combined braking, which makes it very difficult and very special to prepare the systems for this. But we can already see that in the simulator and can also take this into account accordingly.

Combined braking means braking and steering at the same time?

Exactly. It's about working this out together with the driver, also because the Formula E car generally has hardly any downforce. This cannot be compared with a Formula 1 car and makes it very, very difficult to bring the brakes into the corner. But we can control this with the systems and work out the exact distribution of braking torque from corner to corner. It's important to maintain consistency, because that's what makes us strong: we have a good basis. Compared to the last few years, we don't always have to react, we now only adjust very small subtleties from track to track.

"We have a good basis"

New for this season was the all-wheel drive, where you can also use traction control. What's that like from an engineering perspective?

This is very, very exciting. I helped develop the all-wheel drive system and was also involved in the first tests. We drove it for the first time with Jordan King in Varano. It's really cool that you have all the freedom that you don't have in normal mode with rear-wheel drive. Even at the start of the race, for example: it's up to the engineer who sets the parameters how fast the car arrives at turn 1. The driver is fully on the pedal because he has traction control. And when you overtake someone at the start, you know you've done your job well.

What parameters do you set there as engineers?

We decide what torque is available at the front MGU and at the rear MGU. We also specify slip targets, i.e. how much slip we want to set on the axles or wheels.

What sensors do you have at your disposal to determine the slip?

There are wheel speed sensors from the FIA. Because we develop the rear axle ourselves, we also measure the rotational speed of the MGU. And with all this data, we can determine the slip, i.e. the difference between the speed of the car and the wheels. This allows us to see what we need to adjust. We have very different control concepts.

"The front powertrain has presented us with major problems"

How much more difficult is it that you have a standardised part on the front axle, where you only get the data from the FIA sensors? Especially compared to the rear axle, where you can theoretically do anything?

That's a very good question, which also presented us with major problems in terms of control technology, because the two axles are also time-shifted. The powertrain on the front axle generally makes it difficult - we get this data later, in the hundredths of a second range. The powertrain itself is good, but if you were to develop it yourself, you would probably take a completely different approach.

You just have to make sure that you have good control quality on the front axle, that you model it well and keep an eye on the time difference when you send any variables to the front axle. And you also need to know the limitations, which are of course different to those on the rear axle.

We've often seen penalties in the past for using too much power or too much regen. How can that happen?

We sometimes ask ourselves that too (laughs). If you compare it to the first Gen3 seasons, we've already made a lot of progress. I don't think we've been penalised this season - I'm pretty sure of that because I'm always the one responsible. We are two engineers at the track who have to solve the problem in such a case. There is a maximum power that can be called up: 350 or 300 kW. The FIA monitors the whole thing. Our aim is to always go to the maximum limit that we are allowed to call up.

Are you penalised if you exceed this limit just once for a short time?

During normal operation, a maximum of 300 kilowatts may be drawn. It is not the case that you are disqualified if you have drawn 300.1 kilowatts once. There are integrators that add up what you draw too much or too little. Only when this totalled power exceeds a threshold value are you disqualified. And you can use this to push yourself to the limit. If this happens anyway, the quality of our settings was poor or something has occurred that was not known or estimated beforehand.

"We use the regulations in such a way that we get the maximum out of them"

So you actually work in such a way that you retrieve more overall as long as it doesn't exceed the threshold value?

Exactly. It's not a grey area either - we don't look at how we can circumvent the regulations and where there are gaps. We use the FIA's technical regulations in such a way that we get the maximum out of them. And if the FIA says that it was too much, there was no discussion in the past. Of course, it is very unpleasant when you get disqualified, receive a drive-through penalty in the race or have to pay a fine. But that's the way it is in motorsport. We try to go to the limit in every area.

Is it even technically possible to have this fixed limit of 300.00 kilowatts without ever exceeding it? After all, there are always fluctuations and the sensors may also be inaccurate?

Exactly, you have a measurement tolerance of the sensor or, for example, noise in the signal, which results in less or more power due to measurement inaccuracies. That's why the FIA has these specifications, which also take into account what happens on a technical or physical level.

After three years of Gen3, including one year of Gen3 Evo, where is the greatest potential for improvement and further development? Where can you start there or are we talking about the smallest subtleties of subtleties?

We're already making very, very small refinements. We had a big boost from Gen3 to Gen3 Evo, also with the all-wheel drive. But basically, the current development pushes are about evaluating this very precisely with the drivers. The engineers can say what is theoretically good, but there are also the two drivers who have to drive the car. It's my role to understand what we need here. The development of a race car is never finished - especially when you have the freedom on the manufacturer's side to bring something new to the software for every race.

Every race there is actually a new software version, sometimes with major and sometimes with minor updates?

Exactly, but the FIA supplier's specifications also change from time to time. Of course, you have to react to that. But in general, we check after the race to see what we can do differently. What was good, what was bad? Where do we need to improve? This is then implemented, tested in the simulator, evaluated with the drivers and brought to the racetrack.

Thank you very much for the interview.

Thank you too.