ABT Sportsline will cooperate with Mahindra Racing when it re-enters the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, at the start of the Gen3 era from Season 9.
CEOs Dilbagh Gill and Thomas Biermaier have signed an agreement that will see the teams work closely together on development and Mahindra supply the returning German outfit with powertrains.
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“We are looking forward to this new Allgau-India connection and are grateful that Mahindra Racing and its partners are supporting us in our comeback in Formula E,” says Thomas Biermaier. “Mahindra Racing and ABT have a long history together: both brands were founding members of Formula E almost a decade ago, have had many great battles and have jointly driven the development of the series off the track. Now we are continuing our journey within an intense technical collaboration.”
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“As a customer team, we also want to bring our experience from seven years of Formula E with over 80 races and over a decade of electric mobility at ABT Sportsline to the partnership."
Dilbagh Gill, CEO and Team Principal at Mahindra Racing, added: “ABT is one of the top-level race outfits in the world and we’ve long-enjoyed racing competitively against them. It’s an honour to be able to take our powertrain, developed in partnership with ZF, and support the team in its return to the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.
"Both Mahindra Racing and ABT Sportsline were championship founding teams and its absence in the paddock has been felt hugely. We look forward to seeing the team back winning races from 2023 and we are committed to supporting them with whatever they need to succeed.”
Special delivery
ABT's two Gen3 cars are due to arrive in Kempten in October and ahead of that delivery, the team's engineers are working hard to develop software, setup and run simulations, as well as being involved with Mahindra’s testing.
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After private testing, the first public appearance of the newly formed team will then be at the official Formula E test days in Valencia, Spain, in mid-December.
Ahead of the Season 7 double-header finale in Seoul, ABT will announce its two drivers for what the team sees as perhaps its greatest motorsport challenge yet: competing as a private team in an FIA World Championship against a host of world-leading car manufacturers.