Mahindra Racing

Team history

In 2011, the Mahindra Group put India on the world motorcycle racing circuit by entering the Mahindra Racing team into the FIM MotoGP World Motorcycle Racing Championship. In 2012, the team entered the Italian National Motorcycle Racing Championship with an entirely new set up.

Moto3 World Championship

Mahindra Racing competed in the 2013 season with its own new 4- stroke, single-cylinder, 250cc motorcycle: the Mahindra MGP3O, developed with experienced Swiss firm Suter Racing Technology AG. Experienced Spanish rider Efrén Vázquez was teamed with exciting Portuguese teenager Miguel Oliveira. The team scripted history at the Malaysian Grand Prix, when Oliveira claimed the team's first-ever podium finish, which was also the first ever podium for an Indian manufacturer in the World Championship. The team recorded consistent top five finishes and achieved a pole position and three circuit lap records. Mahindra finished third in the Constructors' Championship.

Domestic championships

In the 2012 CIV season, Mahindra Racing competed in the 125 GP Class and became the first team from India to win an international motorsport event, eventually recording six victories from eight races and securing the Constructors' Championship. In the 2013 CIV season, the team entered the Moto3 (250cc – 4 stroke) class with talented riders Andrea Locatelli and Michael Ruben Rinaldi. and made motor sport history by winning the prestigious Constructors' Championship for the second consecutive year. Locatelli and Rinaldi finished the season in first and second place with 167 and 145 points respectively.

Mahindra's decision to take on the world's best at the highest level of motorcycle racing won the team awards such as the 'ZigWheels Motorsport Award of the Year, 2012', and the NDTV Car and Bike Awards 'Mobil 1 Motorsport Award of the Year, 2012'.

In 2013, the MGP3O gained a lot of attention owing to its good results in the Moto3 as compared to the non-performing Hondas. As a result Ambrogio Racing switched to the Mahindra MGP3O from their Hondas from the 2013 Misano race. Their rider Luca Amato had previously ridden the bike in the Spanish CEV and the Moto3 in tests.

Racing staff

Moto3 World Championship team (2014)

Riders

Bike

Tyres

Sponsors

FIM CEV International Moto3 Championship team (2014)

Riders

Bike

Tyres

FIA Formula E Championship Team (2014–present)

Drivers (2014–15 season)

Car

Tyres

Drivers (2015–16 season)

Car

Tyres

Drivers (2016–17 season)

Car

Tyres

Operated

Complete Formula E results

* Season still in progress

MotoGP 125 cc

In 2011, Mahindra Racing made its motor racing debut in the 125cc class of the MotoGP championship, which was then in its last year. The team performed well in their inaugural season, capped off by Danny Webb securing Team Mahindra's first-ever pole position in the last race, at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, Spain.

Moto3

Mahindra Racing participated in the first-ever Moto3 championship, which replaced the 125cc class in 2012. On 5 November 2011, Anand Mahindra then Vice Chairman & Managing Director of Mahindra & Mahindra, unveiled the MGP3O, the team's Moto3 Motorcycle. The MGP3O, liveried in red and white, featured a tubular steel frame and an aluminium swing arm. It weighed merely 83 kg and had a Mahindra-homologated 250cc, single-cylinder, four stroke liquid-cooled DOHC engine developed by Mahindra's Engines Engineering and Oral Engineering. The motorcycle was developed by Mahindra's Engines Engineering and Oral Engineering together. Danny Webb and Marcel Schrötter raced for the team in the first eight rounds of the Moto3 World Championship. The team scored its first Moto3 points at Le Mans on May 20, 2012, when Schrötter finished on a strong 12th position. Before the ninth round, at the Mugello Circuit, Schrötter and Team Mahindra parted ways. Riccardo Moretti, who had until then been racing for Mahindra in the CIV, stepped in for Schrötter. The first year of the new Moto3 four-stroke class proved challenging, and prompted the team into a change of direction. In August 2012, Mahindra partnered with Suter Racing Technology to develop an all-new MGP3O, their Moto3 bike for the 2013 season. And, in November of the same year, they announced that accomplished riders Efrén Vázquez and Miguel Oliveira would be racing for Team Mahindra in the 2013 Moto3 season.

125 cc Italian National Motorcycle Racing Championship

In early December 2012, Mahindra Racing announced its entry into the 125cc class of the Italian National Motorcycle Racing Championship (CIV) with Indian rider S. Sarath Kumar and Italian phenomenon Riccardo Moretti. Moretti was the 2009 champion in the 125cc class while Kumar is a former champion in the 130cc 4-stroke (Novice class, 2008) and the 165cc Expert Class (2009). Moretti won the season-opener, at the Mugello Circuit, Mahindra's first time earning a 1st-place finish. Kumar earned a third-place finish in the third round, at Monza. He left professional racing for personal reasons after round six. Moretti won the second and fourth races, at Imola and Mugello respectively. In the sixth round, at Misano, Moretti and new Mahindra rider Miroslav Popov finished first and second respectively; in the seventh round, again at Misano, Popov took first, while Moretti finished third.

In the final race of the 2012 season, Popov again took first place, and was joined on the podium by new Mahindra Racing rider Lukas Trautmann, who earned a second-place finish in his debut race. The double podium, Mahindra's third of the season, earned the team the 2012 CIV Constructor's Cup.

Constructors' Championship

Riders' Championship

Moto3

The team achieved a double Top-10 finish in the 2013 Moto3 season opener at Qatar. This result was followed by Oliveira's 5th-place finish at the Circuit of the Americas, Team Mahindra's best performance at that point. Mahindra partnered with Suter Racing Technology to develop a new Moto3 bike for the 2013 season. Efrén Vázquez and Miguel Oliveira will be representing Team Mahindra in the MotoGP Championship.

Riders' standings

CIV 2013

In the 2013 season, the team entered the Moto3 class (250cc 4 stroke) in the CIV with talented riders Andrea Locatelli and Michael Rinaldi. Locatelli ended Rounds 1 and 2 with a twin podium finish: he won the first race, and finished in third place in the second. Rinaldi finished eighth in the first encounter and sixth in the second.

Riders' Championship

Constructors' Championship

Season 2014

Vázquez confirmed that he was no longer riding with Mahindra Racing in the 2014 season, and was replaced by Arthur Sissis.

Season 2014 was Mahindra Racing's most successful year with the MGP3O recording three podiums – including a best-ever second-place finish by their customer team, Ambrogio Racing's rider Brad Binder. The first podium of the season was secured by Mahindra Racing rider Miguel Oliveira at the Assen circuit in the Dutch TT.

For the entire season, the team riders Oliveira and Andrea Migno regularly challenged at the front of the tight Moto3 pack. The MGP3O recorded six Top-4 finishes in the entire season, as Mahindra finished third overall in the Moto3 Constructors' rankings at the end of the 2014 season.

Seeing the successful performance of their bike in the 2014 season, Mahindra Racing decided that from 2015, they would renew their focus on bike development and become a full-fledged manufacturer in the Moto3 class of the World Championship.

Season 2015

In 2015, Mahindra Racing became a full-scale independent constructor, supporting four customer teams in the most competitive class of the World Championship. The highlight of this move, which marked a coming of age for Mahindra Racing, was a tie up with the multiple championship-winning Aspar Team. Mahindra Racing supplied three motorcycles to the four-time champion Jorge Martinez's team, becoming their de facto factory team. The tie-up underlined their determination to transform themselves from established giant-killers to full-blown championship contenders.

2015 Riders Line up

A new partnership with 4 times World Champion Jorge Martinez's experienced Mapfre Aspar Team was announced earlier in 2014 season, leading the charge for Mahindra in the ultra-competitive Moto3 series with a three-bike line up. The Aspar Team's Mahindra MGP3Os were piloted by the 2014 Red Bull Rookies Champion, Spaniard Jorge Martin; Italian Francesco Bagnaia, a graduate of the VR 46 academy, who switched from the Sky VR46 team; and Juanfran Guevara, contesting his third Moto3 World Championship.