Mahindra Racing Team makes an impression at it's first ever MotoGP race

March 20, 2011, at 6.45 p.m. local time in Doha, Qatar, two tiny tornadoes painted all metallic silver with red streaks and proudly sporting the Mahindra logo and name on the fairings rolled out to occupy their spots on the 125cc grid of the Grand Prix of Qatar. It was momentous occasion in the 71 history of world championship motorcycle racing for this was the first time an Indian team was entering this highly rarified sport on its own, with its own bikes, its own people and with an outlook which masked a fearsome pride in learning to play the game which many great names in the motorcycle have done in the past.

German rider Marcel Schrotter put the no. 77 Mahindra Racing bike on the outside of row 8 in 22nd position while just alongside him, in 23rd spot on the grid was his team-mate Britisher Danny Webb. For these two as well it was their first tryst as works riders in a class which has seen the likes of Hailwood, Read, Rossi, Capirossi, Biaggi, Pedrosa, Lorenzo and others cut their milk teeth in the battle of the motorcycling greats. For a team to have qualified in its very first Grand Prix with such grid placings is nothing short of respectable, more so when one factors in the development process behind the Aprilia, Derbi and KTM teams has been long and steadfast over the past five to seven years.

To have made the grid was one thing but to run consistently in the 18-lap race and fight for a championship points scoring position was something everyone was waiting to find out. Especially for some of the diehard press pack who had seen it all with new teams come and go, especially from China where they hadn’t even completed a whole season in the sport and the same held true for many in the GP paddocks. Natural this line of thought but when Danny Webb, despite a mundane start, put his tiny head behind the aero bubble of his streamlined fairing and quickly began climbing up the leaderboard, the first tentative answers began to emerge. Mind you this is the pinnacle of the sport and only the best 30 to 33 riders in the 125cc world are capable of making it to the grid of a Grand Prix and when over the first half of the race Danny had made it to 14th place their was nervous optimism in the Mahindra Racing pits.

Marcel Schrotter had got boxed in going into turn one and he had dropped right down to 25th spot before he also began making his climb up to the front but 21st was all the reward for a tough first race for the German who is prized by many teams, including Honda which had his services last year. Webb though was in fine form but erring on the side of conserving his machinery and his tyres he slackened his pace somewhat and for this he paid the price of being relegated to 16th spot at the chequered flag, just 0.394 of a second away from scoring Mahindra Racing’s first world championship point on debut! The disappointment of missing out on a point was however replaced with one of grudging respect from many in the paddock on a job well done. Now that the baseline has been established, it is the consistency of strong placings which will determine how the team will make inroads in the minds of its rivals and its followers alike. I see points coming fairly regularly and who knows given the quality of its people and the machinery they have created, the team could, with a modicum of luck also run right up at the front of the pack by the time this season and the 125cc class runs to a close.

The fact that this team was put together in the short span of just five months prior to this year is something worth recounting. However, the building blocks were already in place and it all began some three years ago when in a strategic move, Mahindra acquired the highly respected design and engineering firm Engines Engineering based in Bologna, Italy. Led by the affable Alberto Strazzari who set this firm up in business some 30 years ago, Engines Engineering has created prototypes and did development work for some of the world’s most well known bike brands including a couple of Indian OEMs. High performance machinery, specialized components and design and development were all part of the firm’s repertoire and when these began to acquire cutting edge capability, Engines Engineering went racing as well. First assisting individual privateer teams with over the counter racing bikes from other manufacturers, Engines Engineering next turned to designing, building and also racing their own complete bikes albeit with branding for the teams who came up with the money muscle needed to go about this technologically demanding sport. 

In 2007 the team had come up with its very own 125cc motorcycle which was used by the Malaguti racing team which stringed together many a good result in the 2008 125cc World Championship. However, Malaguti pulled out of racing at the end of the year and the team was unable to proceed with development of their disc valve engine. In 2009 the Chinese bike maker Loncin put their name on the bike but they didn’t even last the entire season. Efforts by a team of Italian enthusiasts to revive the fabled Lambretta name and go bike racing meant that the Engines Engineering 125cc racer competed under the scooter firm’s name.

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During a strategy meeting in the middle of 2010 in India, the think tank within the Mahindra Group decided that with their ongoing global presence, they needed a vehicle to illustrate and highlight their standing, their capability, their strengths and their potential to a larger worldwide audience. Given the positive impact accruing to Mahindra Satyam thanks to their support of the FIFA World Cup football championship in South Africa, the think tank within Mahindra knew they needed a global sporting platform but one in which they could display their strengths while developing new muscle at the same time. Being a truly global spectacle, MotoGP seemed promising, from the PR and marketing point of view as well and this was when Alberto Strazzari said they could have  their engine and bike ready along with a strong team of dedicated professionals manning the set-up, the ball was in Mahindra’s court.

A small task force was set up to evaluate and see whether MotoGP was possible, and a trip to the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix provided the answers. MotoGP attracts a loyal fan following all over the world but especially in south east Asia where the two-wheelers sold are also very much in sync with those in India. All the big names in the bike world compete for honour and glory and the means to propagate their brands to the worldwide motorcycle consumers and this was another box ticked for the right reasons (Mahindra 2-Wheelers could benefit from this fact). If that wasn’t all, many big names in the IT world are present in MotoGP and if that is not all car makers like Fiat and AMG Mercedes are also well entrenched in the sport via their sponsorship of the Yamaha and Ducati MotoGP teams. If that is not all, BMW and Iveco are involved solidly in this sport as major backers and all of a sudden there were synergies linking Mahindra’s diverse outfits which could benefit from the halo effect from a possible foray into this sport.

Things moved pretty quickly after the Malaysian MotoGP and a proper project was drawn up with funding having been signed off for Mahindra Racing to go and compete in the 125cc class (in 2011) and the Moto3 class in 2012 and 2013 after which a review would be held to continue in the sport.

Technology plays one role in a racing team but an even greater role is played by key personnel who know what it means to take split second decisions during a Grand Prix weekend. Bike or car racing is quite frankly the best place to hone the analytical ability of engineers and this is something which Soichiro Honda made it a point to outline that all those who would head the CEO’s post in his eponymous firm would have at some time or the other headed or worked in the racing division. Of course, right now only Mufaddal Choonia from Mahindra & Mahindra is the single Indian in the Mahindra Racing set-up (he operates as the team principal) but the human resources at Mahindra Racing are top notch and the manner in which the small bunch went about their tasks fettling the bikes, making critical adjustments in the course of the practice sessions to liberate the nth of a second needed to move from 30th place to 20th place on the grid, immaculate attention to detail on the bikes, even mentoring the young hot chargers and giving them both the carrot and the stick approach in a firm but benevolent manner marks this team out as one to watch out for.

I again qualify the above statement by saying it is much too early but the potential is manifest and in this last year of the 125cc class (this is to be replaced by the Moto3 class for 250cc single-cylinder four-stroke engines from 2012) I wouldn’t be wrong in mentioning that strong top ten finishes are looking good. How the team gels this year will help them massively for 2012 when not just 125cc class big daddies Aprilia and Derbi reveal their all new engines and bikes but even the likes of the returning Honda, Yamaha and KTM hordes will all start from one single level plank. Just opportune for Mahindra Racing to really show the steely stuff it is made of.

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