Mahindra is a Formula E frontrunner again, but will it end its five-year victory drought?

Mahindra Racing was in sustained decline when Frederic Bertrand took over the reins of the Formula E team on the eve of the Gen3 era in November 2022. In the three previous seasons, Mahindra had finished ninth, ninth and eighth respectively in the teams’ standings, with two podiums and a victory offering brief respite from an otherwise bleak trajectory.

Worse still, Mahindra was on the back foot with the development of its Gen3 contender, and Bertrand was forced into a series of structural changes to put the house back in order.

It was a long recovery process – which saw future Formula E champion Oliver Rowland leave the team midway through 2023 – but one that was necessary to get the team back at the front. But with a new driver line-up comprising Edoardo Mortara and Nyck de Vries, both of whom bought into Bertrand’s vision, the team has been steadily chipping towards the front.

The Gen3 Evo-spec M11 Electro was the first car conceived under Mahindra’s new leadership, and its late podium run in 2025 was vindication of its efforts.

Despite stable regulations, Mahindra has taken another step forward. Pre-season testing prompted some rivals to label it a dark horse for the title, and while a sustained championship push has yet to fully materialise, the upward trajectory is evident.

Following last weekend’s Jeddah double-header, Mortara sits second in the drivers’ championship behind Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein, while Mahindra itself holds third place in the teams’ standings behind Porsche and Jaguar.

The last time Mahindra finished inside the top three in the championship was 2016-17, when Formula E was still in its early years and drivers had to switch cars mid-race due to range limitations.

“Two podiums and two pole positions out of five races, it’s been a good start of the year, at least for me,” Mortara told Motorsport.com.

“It’s been a bit unlucky for Nyck, and it proves that actually we still have some margin for progression. Nevertheless, if you look at the progression over these last years, it’s been pretty impressive, and it’s also showing that the team is doing a fantastic job to bring in more performance every race.”

How did Mahindra find performance over the winter?

Although the regulations have remained the same, Mahindra’s engineers and third-party suppliers have been able to optimise the package to extract more performance in the final year of the Gen3 Evo cycle.

“It’s mostly on understanding the car better, but also the way the driver wants the car,” Bertrand explained in an interview with Motorsport.com.

“At the end, this game is a lot about the confidence drivers have in the way they brake, in the way they manage their lap, and also in the way we race in Formula E. So there was a lot of work done in simulating [these scenarios], and trying to better understand what the others are doing and what we can do better.

“The second thing is definitely on software, where we had a huge work done by the team on identifying some ideas on improving efficiency, making the car more performant on braking, making the car better for keeping the pace in some turns and keeping the minimum speed as high as we can so that you consume less [energy]. So it’s a lot of small tricks that all come together to give a good result.”

Missed opportunities

Edoardo Mortara, Mahindra Racing and Sebastien Buemi, Envision Racing

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

Porsche remains the benchmark in Formula E, and Jaguar, Nissan and Citroen have all proved they are capable of strong performances, Mahindra is now firmly in the mix with the lead group, but arguably should have more points to show for it.

While Mahindra has made clear progress since 2024-25, it has also given away some big points-scoring opportunities in the early part of the season.

In Sao Paulo, Mortara and de Vries qualified third and fifth respectively, putting themselves in a strong position for a big result in the season opener. But de Vries misjudged his braking at the start and forced Mortara wide, setting up a chain reaction that would leave both out of podium contention.

Bertrand wasn’t hesitant to admit that the Sao Paulo disappointment had a detrimental impact on the team’s approach, forcing it to try harder to convert raw pace into result.

“It started to create [a situation] in the brains of the guys where they have to either challenge their car more or challenge themselves [more],” he explained.

“And it’s a little bit of energy lost in the guys that you also lose on the track. So if we could have come back from Sao Paulo with 10-15 more points and having the two cars in the top 10, it would have been very different because we would be very close to or maybe even better than where we are now.”

In Jeddah, Mortara delivered a strong points haul for Mahindra after a double pole position, finishing second in the opening race before claiming fourth in the second leg. But the team could arguably have come away from the weekend with better results.

Mortara’s opening race was compromised when he tumbled down the order at the start with a big rear tyre lock-up. There were no obvious mistakes in the second leg of the weekend, but the Swiss driver admitted that he didn’t want to take too much risk to grab a podium, aware that a third place would have only offered three extra points.

Meanwhile, de Vries’ weekend was derailed by a technical issue that forced him out of the opening race before it even began. The subsequent change of powertrain components led to a hefty penalty for the second race, leaving him with no chance of a comeback.

Is a first win since 2021 on the horizon?

Nyck de Vries, Mahindra Racing

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

After Sao Paulo, Bertrand has been keen to avoid putting unnecessary pressure on the crew. Consistently scoring big points is the main target, with any podium seen as a bonus by the team.

“We don’t want to get overenthusiastic and try to say all the time we want a podium,” he said.

“What we want is what we delivered in Miami: 15 to 20 points. If we do that for the remaining races we have now, normally we will end up in a good position. That’s the goal.

“If, on top of that, a few podiums or even wins can come, more than happy, these [are] points anyway. But the goal is definitely to drive safely and smartly.”

The last time a Mahindra driver stood on the top step of the podium was the 2021 London E-Prix, when Alex Lynn triumphed with a Gen2 car. Since then, the team has gone more than four seasons without scoring a win, a drought that feels increasingly out of sync with its current form.

Winning against stern competition from Porsche, Jaguar and Stellantis teams won’t be easy, but it must be the obvious next target for a team that has now rebuilt its reputation in Formula E. Mortara and de Vries have themselves gone winless since 2022, so both are in need of a big result.

But as Mortara explains, a lot of things will have to fall in place for him or de Vries to break through in 2026.

“We are going to try to do our best, at some point it’s going to come,” he said about Mahindra’s victory chances this season.

“When you keep on qualifying well, when you keep on racing at the front, at some point hopefully the stars will get the line for us and we’ll be able maybe to snatch that first win.”

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– The Motorsport.com Team

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