Edoardo Mortara will embark on his second year with Mahindra Racing in Season 11 of Formula E, and he will be hoping to improve upon a challenging 2023/24 campaign.
The Swiss driver has been racing in the all-electric series since the 2017/18 season where he joined Venturi. Mortara spent five season with the team, winning his first race at the Hong Kong ePrix in 2019.
In his final two seasons with the Monegasque team, the 37-year-old established himself as a championship contender, missing out on the title to Nyck de Vries in 2020/21 by just seven points. Mortara won four races the following year – the most he has ever claimed in a Formula E season – but again missed out on the championship as he finished third.
Mortara remained with the team when Venturi rebranded to Maserati in 2022/23, but he languished down in 14th in the standings with 39 points. Making the switch to Mahindra for Season 10, the Swiss driver scored 10 fewer points and registered his lowest finish in an FE season with 16th.
As the Gen3 Evo era approaches for Season 11, Mahindra will be hoping the new machine and the team’s new powertrain will aid their goal of returning to the front of the field, but speaking with Formula E Zone, Mortara admitted he is finding his first outings in the car ‘difficult’.
Edoardo Mortara stresses he has to ‘discover a lot of things’ with the Gen3 Evo car
FE is at the Jarama Circuit in Madrid this week for pre-season testing. The test had been scheduled to take place in Valencia, but the series had to relocate after the tragic floods in the region.
In the fourth session of testing on Thursday, Kiro Race Co test driver David Beckmann set the fastest time in what has been an impressive pre-season thus far for the new American team.
READ MORE: Everything to know on the 2024 Formula E Women’s Test including the drivers
Mortara could only manage 18th in the session, but testing is not too much to go by in terms of a final order for the season. Mahindra team principal Frederic Bertrand says it would be ‘totally stupid’ to draw any conclusions from testing in Madrid.
But what Mortara is certain of is that the team still have ‘plenty to do’ as he gets to grips with the ‘challenging’ Jarama Circuit and the new car for the 2024/25 season.
When asked how testing was going, the Swiss driver replied: “Difficult. I must say that this Jarama racing track is pretty challenging. It’s a lot of high-speed corners, where it’s actually pretty demanding for us drivers.
“On top of that, we have to discover a lot of things, this new Gen3 Evo car. We have a new powertrain so there is plenty to do. We are gathering as much data as we can and hopefully we are going to able to have the best choices, or the right choices let’s say, for this season.”
Can Mahindra Racing improve their fortunes in Season 11?
Mahindra have fallen on hard times in recent years in FE, finishing second bottom of the Teams’ Championship in the last two seasons. In Season 10, only ERT finished behind the Indian team as they languished 24 points behind at the bottom of the table.
Mahindra endured a torrid start to the season, picking up their first points of the season in Berlin through Mortara with eighth place in the first ePrix. Teammate Nyck de Vries missed the event due to his commitments to the World Endurance Championship.
READ MORE: Zhou Guanyu’s stance on Formula E ‘options’ after Sauber F1 axe
Mortara would go on to score points two more times in Season 10, with fourth in the first race in Portland and fifth in the first race in London. De Vries came home fourth in that London ePrix to mark his only points finish of the season and Mahindra’s only double-points finish of the year.
With a brand new car and powertrain for Season 11, along with two drivers who have proven they can win races and challenge for the title – with de Vries winning the championship in Season Seven – Mahindra will be eager to push up the grid and get back to winning ways next season.