Following his period at BMW Andretti in his first two seasons in Formula E, Alexander Sims feels at home with the Mahindra Racing squad, becoming one of the main contenders in the championship.
In 2019-2020 Sims began his campaign with an incredible results, with a double pole and a victory in the first Riyadh match as the highlight, and headed to the break (due to the pandemic) third in the table of classification.
Later his results fell when the competition was resumed in Berlin and he ended up dropping 10 places. It was around this time that Sims ended his relationship with BMW and instead joined forces with a Mahindra Racing team that had just endured its first podium-free campaign since season one.
Team boss Dilbagh Gill pointed out that Alexander Sims started in Formula E when he was António da Costa (in his fifth season) teammate and in his first season he was very close to the Portuguese in terms of speed.
It may also interest you: Formula E will adapt a version of the F1 Monaco circuit layout
“If you look at their race pace, race averages, qualifying averages etc, they were really close. And today da Costa is considered the class of the field. Sims was his closest teammate ever – and that was in his first year,” he told Autosport.
Sims for his part, expresses feeling settled with the people around him and that the atmosphere in Mahindra is brilliant.
“It’s a nice feeling going into a race knowing into a race that if we can get the car balance right, if we can drive it right then the energy efficiency of the powertrain is going to be right up there with us,” said Alexander Sims.
Sims was at his best in the second half of the Rome double event, taking advantage of the group qualifying format to clinch a spot in the superpole, before delivering an excellent second place in the race.
“Everyone is incredibly hard working and experienced in motorsport to know how to work but equally there is a side to any relationship that just needs time and to understand the finer points of how I like to feel a racing car around a lap and how my engineers work. It just needs us to go through multiple race weekends,” expressed.
While they are still pursuing his first successful race, Mahindra is currently in a solid seventh place in the championship, just nine points behind the fourth-place Envision Virgin team. On the other hand, his former team BMW Andretti is at the bottom of the table with just 12 points after the first two weekends.
Written by | Gabriel Sayago
