Lucas Di Grassi has admitted that his first season with Mahindra has been “painful”, but that the Banbury-based side are making progress.
The Formula E veteran heads to the 2023 Formula E season finale this weekend in London on the back of having won at the ExCeL Centre last year, in what is his most recent victory in the all-electric series.
Di Grassi claimed victory in race two of last season’s London double-header, something which could fill him with hope of a good weekend. Formula E’s trip to the British capital was a very mixed one for the Brazilian in 2022, with it having started in bizarre fashion.
The 38-year-old was forced to start from the back of the grid for the opening race in London 12 months ago, after being disqualified from qualifying.
He had all his qualifying times deleted during the group phase for supposedly impeding Robin Frijns and Mitch Evans, something which saw him not take part in the duels despite his best time having been good enough.
Di Grassi did well to recover from 22nd on the grid to finish ninth for ROKIT Venturi, despite having been slapped with a five-second time penalty as well. The Brazilian reflected on that bizarre opening day and the qualifying disqualification which made “no sense” ahead of this weekend.
“Actually, Saturday, I did a good race, I started last, I did a good qualifying as well, but I got disqualified,” Di Grassi told Motorsport Week ahead of this weekend.
“Yeah, something that made no sense at all. But anyway, I had a good weekend here, with being very very quick on the Saturday and winning the race on the Sunday.”
The unique circuit at the ExCeL Circuit has notoriously been very difficult to overtake at, putting further emphasis on the drivers qualifying well.
For Mahindra this season, qualifying has been very difficult, with the side often being a couple of tenths slower than those who progress to the duels.
Unfortunately, the closeness of the field this season means being two-tenths of a second slower often results in a low starting position, something Di Grassi has discovered this season.
He’s often made significant progress during the races this year though, with the season three Champion having made up at least five places in eight of the 14 races this season.
Di Grassi and Mahindra have shown real promise during the races and superb efficiency, with points definitely being possible if they can qualify closer to the top 10.
He does believe though, that London goes “a little bit against” Mahindra, with the veteran noting that the team need to “focus” on their own performance and “not the result itself”.
“I think this year goes a little bit against us, but, yeah, it’s hard to say. It really depends on the track,” Di Grassi noted.
“Like, for example, Portland was the most energy efficient race of the season and we did a good job. So it’s hard for me to say also that this race goes 100% against us. I think by being efficient could be good.
“If it rains, could create a little bit of chaos. So, yeah, anything can happen in the race. We have to focus on not the result itself. We have to focus on doing the best we can, getting the best performance out and see how we finish at the end of the week.”
He added: “It’s a bit like Rome, qualifying is very important.”
The start of the Gen3 era has certainly been “difficult” for Mahindra and for Di Grassi, with the driver’s Mexico City pole position and podium having been the highlight of their season.
Di Grassi started life at Mahindra and the new era of the all-electric series perfectly, with him having been one of a select few drivers who were able to “extract the most” from their package right from the off at round one.
Given how torrid pre-season was for the Indian manufacturer, Di Grassi’s sensational start to the season came as a huge shock, but a pleasant one for the team.
When the other teams started to understand their powertrains though, Mahindra fell backwards, to the point where themselves and customer team ABT CUPRA sit at the foot of the Constructors’ Championship.
Cape Town was a significant low point for the manufacturer in general, after all four Mahindra-powered cars were pulled from the event following safety concerns with their rear suspension.
Despite their struggles, Mahindra have stuck together and worked tirelessly, to the point where they’re “slowly” starting to decrease the gap to the other powertrains.
Nevertheless, Di Grassi openly admits that it’s been a “painful year”.
“It was a difficult first year,” Di Grassi admitted when reflecting on his first season with Mahindra.
“The car is new, the car is very complex. Mahindra built a car from scratch. We had a little bit of delays from suppliers. We didn’t do all the testing required or all the testing necessary to bring the car to the maximum performance.
“So we are still running behind time, we are still trying to catch the others up. So we were never in a position since the beginning of the season to win the championship.
“So I think the first race I managed to extract the most out of the car while everybody was trying to understand still the format of the race, and then after that kind of every weekend trying to push as hard as possible.
“But after people understood how to get the performance out of this car, it was hard to get to the top teams. But slowly we are decreasing this gap. So it has been a very painful year, but we learned a lot.”
As to when his attention will switch to 2024, Di Grassi will likely not have even jumped out of the cockpit yet.
“I think Sunday, three minutes after the race,” Di Grassi revealed, when asked how soon his attention will switch to next season.
“Because we have to start working as early as possible to make sure that the car is as best as we can for next season. And although we have good holidays in August, the team, or at least parts of the team will continue the work to develop the hardware that we have to be ready for next season.”
