Mahindra’s Frederic Bertrand: “We really need races without mistakes”

Mahindra Racing Team Principal Frederic Bertrand has admitted that the Indian manufacturer “really need races without mistakes”, after a disappointing weekend at the inaugural São Paulo E-Prix.

Unlike in Cape Town, Mahindra did compete in the entirety of the weekend in Brazil, after addressing their safety concerns with their rear suspension. This was at least a positive for the side, given the shock that was caused when they pulled-out of South Africa. This was about as positive as their weekend in Brazil got unfortunately, after home hero Lucas di Grassi qualified last after hitting a wall. Oliver Rowland was only a few places further up in nineteenth.

The race was significantly better than qualifying for the team, with Di Grassi having recovered to thirteenth whilst Rowland finished fifteenth. Despite their point-less finish, the team remain seventh in the Constructors’ Championship.

Reflecting on the sixth round of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, the team boss openly admitted that “too many mistakes” are being made and that they remain well behind “the rest of the field”, but that they should “hopefully” be able to improve the car before next month’s double-header in Berlin.

“The first priority for us here was to show we had an operational car, which thankfully, we did. We had a car that was reasonably good for qualifying, but the session was bad for both drivers. For one, a lack of feeling in the car and for the other, an incident that ruined a promising lap time. Starting from the back, the race was a big fight with a lot of crashes and safety cars. I think Lucas and Oliver managed this quite well and they both had reasonable pace.

“For Lucas I think he did the best job he could do, and Oliver had some great battles. But we made too many mistakes, like missing attack mode and avoidable contact. We know we are still not where we want to be, but for the moment we really need races without mistakes – the gap to the rest of the field is still too great. We now have four weeks ahead of us to prepare for Berlin. We are hopeful to be able to fix some issues, which will hopefully improve the drivers’ feeling in the car as we go into the rest of the season.”