Mahindra Racing diaries on the prelude to London E-Prix

Just over a week ago we were racing in full view of the Manhattan skyline in New York, and this weekend we’ll be going to another iconic city - the one I was born in – London.

New York was a bit of a game of two halves. Saturday’s race was frustrating as we got a puncture. I got hit by Norman Nato from the Venturi, but it was a bit of a racing incident, which was unfortunate as we were clawing positions back after struggling with pace at the start.

Sunday saw us have a solid race and I’m pleased with it – we had a lot of clean air so we just did our own thing and brought the car home in sixth place, scoring some good points. Normally race pace is strong for us so we’ve been working hard ahead of London to work out why we struggled in the races to make sure that we round out the last two weekends of the season as strongly as we can.

Moving to London is going to be very different. It will be quite a different circuit to the majority that we’ve raced on this season, it’s the first indoor/outdoor race Formula E has ever held and we’re expecting it to be less of an energy sensitive race.

It has quite short straights, a lot of technical sections and a lot of corners, which will be challenging in terms of qualifying – a clean qualy lap is going to be tough and very important, but good fun. One thing that might come into play in London is that, due to the nature of the track, it may be a bit of a concertina effect with the flat straights and such slow corners. We are hoping we have some overtaking opportunities, but this is what makes qualifying very important at this track and will be one of our key focuses.

It still feels slightly surreal that we’re going to be racing in London; it’s going to be nice to race near the heart of the city. Like with lots of Formula E races, I never anticipated racing in London and I wasn’t in the series when they raced in the city in the first two seasons. I was born in London so this really is my home race!

Keep an eye on the Mahindra Racing social channels to follow our performance over the weekend and to see exclusive and behind the scenes content. You can also Fanboost me, which gives me an extra boost of power during the race.You can find out all the information on how to do this at the Formula E website here: https://fanboost.fiaformulae.com