Ahead of Saturday’s season-opening Mexico City E-Prix, it’s been reported by Formula E Notebook (FEN) that the Abt Cupra Formula E Team has given Mahindra Racing ‘formal notice’ that they won’t be using their powertrains for Gen3.5, which will be introduced in Season 11.
Mahindra’s Gen3 powertrain is undoubtedly one of the weakest if not the weakest on the grid, with Abt having suffered the consequences of being their customer team. The Kempten-based outfit finished last in the Constructors’ Championship last season, in what was their returning campaign.
With the hardware being under homologation until the conclusion of Season 10, the general expectation is that whilst results might improve slightly, it’s going to be another year at the back of the grid for Abt.
FEN reported: ‘FEN understands that formal notice has been given by the Abt Cupra team to end the relationship with its powertrain supplier Mahindra for the Gen3Evo period of the competition. Abt Cupra is now talking to several manufacturers about a supply for Seasons 11 and 12 and is set to make a decision imminently.’
Mahindra themselves have openly admitted that they are on a long-term journey to being victory contenders again, with Abt Cupra simply not wanting to wait multiple seasons to be truly competitive. One manufacturer Abt Cupra has been linked to is Porsche, although this will result in the German manufacturer looking after a second customer team.
Whilst this would increase the workload on Porsche, they reportedly aren’t against it. Another option would be for title sponsor Cupra to become a Formula E powertrain supplier. A setback with this option, though, is that Cupra likely won’t have the time to develop a powertrain.
However, they could theoretically register as a Formula E manufacturer but partner with Porsche, similar to what Maserati and DS Automobiles do but with Stellantis. Returning Abt driver and Season 3 Lucas di Grassi is in favour of Cupra partnering with Porsche to power Abt from Season 11, and thinks it could be “very interesting”.
“That could actually be very interesting,” Di Grassi told e-Formula.news. “I see no reason not to do it. It’s always good to have healthy competition in-house. If Cupra teamed up with Porsche, it would probably be good for them because they could race straight away.”
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