New Delhi, May 6 (IANS): After a strong 2013 Moto3 season, finishing third in the manufacturers’ standings, Mahindra Racing is struggling in the ongoing 2014 season in the 250cc class of the World Motorcycle Racing Championship.
Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira clinched the team's first and only podium so far in the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix and -- continuing his efforts this year -- achieved a fourth place finish in the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix. But after that, the team has struggled to keep pace with championship contenders KTM and Honda.
“We have been unlucky this year. We had a good start in Qatar. Then we had a couple of crashes, some mechanical issues and errors. Yes, we are not happy with the season so far and want to improve. Ups and downs are typical of racing,” Mahindra Racing’s chief executive officer Mufaddal Choonia told IANS Tuesday from Jerez de la Frontera where Oliveira finished a mere 14th and teammate Arthur Sissis retired at the start of the Spanish Grand Prix Sunday.
Choonia said the Indian team is not behind in terms of pace from KTM, who have won all four races this season, but their bike - MGP3O - is slower off the corners which is proving to be their Achilles heel.
“We are not far off at all. But there are certain disadvantages. We have a low end accelerating issue in slower corners, meaning the bikes are slower off the pace at slow corners. This is because there have been modifications,” said Choonia, adding that this bane could turn into a boon on faster circuits.
“But we are expecting to do well on faster free flowing circuits which don’t have too many slow corners. We should do well at Mugello (Italian GP) and Misano (San Marino GP) where we will not lose too much speed out of the corners. We know where we have to improve and are working on that.”
Asked about their target this year, the team boss said: “We want to do well and keep improving. This is the highest level of racing and competition is really tough. We’ll try to give our best. There has been a lot of realignment this year with fast riders on the fastest bikes.”
While Formula 1 has seen an increasing number of races being held in Asia, there has been no such trend in the two-wheeler series with only three of 18 GPs being held in the world’s largest continent.
“The commercial rights holder definitely wants to make the series more international. Argentina and Brazil were two new races added to the 2014 calendar, but the latter was dropped after homologation. I agree the sport is Europe centric but an attempt is being made to make it more international. There needs to be a lot of planning to host a World Championship with no compromise on quality or effort,” said Choonia.
Next came the clichéd but ever important question for an Indian motorsports fan - when do we see an Indian riding the MGP3O?
“As soon as we find one. We tested Sarath Kumar in the Italian National Championship but we didn’t feel he was ready for the level. He needs to hone his skills more. We would be the happiest to offer an Indian a racing seat on an Indian bike but we can’t compromise on quality,” concluded Choonia.