How AI boosts Mahindra engineering and racing tech

Rear-view mirrors, disc brakes, paddle shift transmissions – all things we take for granted today that are standard features on road cars. Motorsport has always been a laboratory for developing new technology and ideas.

Today is no different. While fewer race car innovations are making it onto our daily drivers and the “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” ethos is less prevalent, racing is still a breeding ground for technology that improves life away from the track.

Indian engineering conglomerate Mahindra might lend its name to a Formula E team, but behind the scenes, the Tech Mahindra arm of the business is using the team to develop technologies deployed into other areas, one of which is its Rubicon AI tool.

“When Mahindra Racing was looking at things to bring into the race team from an innovation standpoint, Tech Mahindra came up with this solution together with the Mahindra Racing team,” Roshan Shetty, BFSI and public sector head for Tech Mahindra in the Americas, tells RACER. “It looks at data from an analytics standpoint, leveraging the data to build a simulator tool that empowers Mahindra Racing with capabilities to anticipate future trends and optimize the race strategies to help the team’s performance.”

The Rubicon AI tool helps balance energy usage in a series so often determined by efficiency. But while that might seem very Formula E-specific, its origins can be found in more ordinary settings.

“We developed it specifically for the Mahindra racing team, but we leverage the insights and experiences to be applied to other industries,” says Shetty. “Similarly, in our Manufacturing Experience Center, we have created a simulated environment where we monitor the performance of the water pump, which through advanced telemetry systems gives us inputs in terms of how we can maintain the pump efficiently on an ongoing basis – we gather insights to predict when based on the usage of the pump it needs maintenance based on the possibility of rust and wear and tear in the pump.

“The retail industry thrives on the optimization of the supply chain and the ability for us to intervene and bring solutions that can control the supply chain — and make it much more efficient — gives the ability for our clients and the industry to operate at a much more efficient manner.”

Unlike a traditional sponsor Mahindra plays a key role in providing engineering solutions for its race team, bolstering its own capabilities in the process. Sam Bloxham/Getty Images

Using technology and simultaneously developing for the real world means that Mahindra goes far beyond being a typical race team sponsor. It’s not just signing the checks and supplying the stickers; it’s playing an active role in what’s happening on the track through the work it does off it. And that’s something that is particularly important to the company.

“Our partnership with Mahindra Racing is a strong testament to our commitment to sustainability and innovation,” says Peeyush Dubey, chief marketing officer at Tech Mahindra. “By bringing together our technological expertise and Mahindra Racing’s on-track excellence, we are accelerating the future of electric mobility. This collaboration goes beyond engineering – it’s about driving sustainable solutions that shape a smarter, greener tomorrow.”

“We believe in the purpose beyond the profits we generate,” Shetty adds. “And we have a firm commitment to sustainability. So that, coupled with our technology skills is something we are bringing forward in this partnership with the Mahindra Racing team. We don’t just want to be sponsors but actively bring our whole purposeful business model along with the tech skills that we have to help the race team and influence and make a better impact on the planet and provide value to our stakeholders.”

A considerable part of the collaboration is having a team stationed at Mahindra Racing’s base in Banbury in the UK. This takes the supply of technology and ideas further by integrating both sides together to build a greater understanding, and with it, a greater return.

“We believe that if we have to make an impact, we also need to understand the nuts and bolts of what happens in that industry,” Shetty says. “The people being on the ground, implementing and developing solutions, can also understand some of the answers and problems they pick up from the ground.

“You understand the business, and you understand the work you’re doing, and how it is helping.”

The unique engineering challenges of Formula E offer scope for Mahindra Tech to flex its engineering muscles, and Mahindra Racing is showing the fruits of that. Joe Portlock/Getty Images

The collaboration is already bearing fruit. While GEN3 perhaps hasn’t been the best for Mahindra before this season, the 2024-25 campaign has seen it enjoy its best start to a campaign in the current era, with points finishes in every race so far, and a podium in the first race of the Monaco E-Prix.

“I think that what we are seeing is that the performance is improving, both on the aspect of the energy consumption and also in terms of the aspect related to how the drivers are deciding, along with the team, in terms of the strategy during the race in real time,” says Shetty.

With its effectiveness assured, next Tech Mahindra wants to continue to develop so that Rubicon stays state-of-the-art and helps the race team be so, too – which will have another knock-on effect on the track.

“We will keep on evolving,” Shetty affirms. “Our aim is to make it much greener. I know the carbon footprint is much more restricted in this sport, but we can make it much more energy efficient. The AI part is still in the initial stages of what it can give back. We will see a lot of innovation coming from AI, and we’ll see how that can be brought forward into the racing area.”