been some light contact, and he analysed the first season and told me what he was planning to change and how much the Mahindra company is behind the project.
All those things actually on a telephone call convinced me to move to Mahindra, and I've not regretted it. The team has evolved and improved already over season one, season two was a little step forward and season three is another big step. The results haven’t yet shown but we’ve had the pace in each race to fight for the podium, and this is quite a nice place to be in.
RW: What do you attribute to the team's improvement, especially this season?
NH: It’s many, many small things. From the first to the second year, the team was changed in the background - now we are with Campos, and Dilbagh then told me that in season two they would not have time to change everything they wanted for season three. The team has developed like many other teams have, their own drivetrain working together with Magneti Marelli and I think this was a good step. Also, the team itself, some people in the team have stepped up, and I have also tried to help.
We are all quite realistic in analysing where the problems are and why, and we just try to improve all the time. I think
Dilbagh is doing a great job - he’s still new to motorsport, and I can imagine being in his shoes he has ten or twenty people telling him what he needs to do.
Also on the financial side, we can’t just spend what we want, so he’s very good at looking ahead and making sure the team is in a healthy financial position The team atmosphere is also very good, and I feel that they all want to be successful.
RW: Despite showing excellent pace, the Mexico City ePrix was a disappointing weekend for the team. How do you see that now having had time to reflect on it?
NH: I still feel that it was Nico’s mistake, but the stewards decided not to take action. I have a few views of my own, but obviously, Nico has a different one. For me, we really unlucky before that, I don’t like to blame things on luck too much, but sometimes there are things that are not in your control. I pitted from P2, and when I came out I was in P7 or something, I was thinking ‘what has gone wrong here!’.
The problem was that Andretti didn’t know the pit stop time and left two seconds early, that meant we came out side-by-side and Sam Bird got ahead of me but this is actually where all the mess started. Overtaking was very difficult, more so than anticipated, and then Nico comes and just closes the gap because we were held up.
As soon as he reaches my gearbox he thinks he can easily overtake, but he was not really alongside me, that’s my view. Unfortunately, my teammate drove into me, but he was too close and couldn’t avoid me.
RW: You know Nico well from your time together in sports car racing. Did the two of you discuss the incident after the race?
NH: Only when we were with the stewards, and I wasn’t too happy with what he said then, but that’s the way it goes.
RW: Mahindra are a team that are regularly in the mix for podium places, but as a yet, that first win hasn't arrived. What do the team need to do to take that next step?
NH: We have to look at ourselves and improve, which is what we’ve done since the last race. Partly it’s out of our control, because sometimes, or at least one team, are on average quicker than us, but we’ve seen in Mexico they are not unbeatable. We have to hope that [Renault] struggle a little bit; we do a perfect job, and then anything can happen.
RW: You're competing again in WEC this year; is that something you'll continue to do, and what does the future hold for you in Formula E?
NH: I’ve mixed the two now for the last couple of years, and my idea for the moment is to do the same. I don’t know what will happen next year; I might change my view. I enjoy Formula E a lot, also because it’s different to all the single seaters I've done before. We go to fantastic cities, and I enjoy being with a team with the goal to move forward and our goal is still to win the championship.
Images: Richard Washbrooke Photography