“Ladies and gentlemen, watch out. The Indians are coming.” With these words, Anand Mahindra whipped the veil off the latest Moto3 bike to break cover. The Mahindra, using an anachronistic steel-tube frame for ease of development, is the third full Moto3 bike to be formally unveiled. Mr Mahindra, managing director of the group, outlined the reasons for the company’s venture into motorcycle GP racing, which began this year when they took over the former Loncin/Lambretta/Malaguti machine developed by Italian company Engines Engineering, owned by Mahindra since 2008. “We are here to stay,” Mahindra said. “This was our development year, and the boys have done us proud. We sometimes start lowly, and sometimes faster, but we always play to win.
We have Sirish in conversation with Anand Mahindra and other top honchos of Mahindra and Mahindra.
Sirish: Congratulation on your season! Did you expect Mahindra Racing to do so well?
Anand Mahindra: No, to be honest we set ourselves some very modest targets for the year as this was the debut season. We used it as a learning year and as a year that would be a launch pad for, what we anticipate to be, a very long-term commitment to this genre of racing. We were very happy when we just missed points in the first race, even happier when we got into the points in the second race but to end the season with pole position in the last 125cc genre race, I think, that certainly is something that was beyond expectations.
Sirish: That is a fantastic achievement and for next year, obviously it will be a clean slate for everybody. Do you see Mahindra challenging for podiums now? What is your target now?
Anand Mahindra: Well you know early into the season, even though as I said we set ourselves modest targets, when we found ourselves doing well and getting consistently in the points, we started raising our sights and got hungrier. So we were always in a sense, for some time now been looking for top ten finishes. As you know our new corporate philosophy is ‘Rise’ so we’re talking about rise being a continuous phenomenon. So we are just going to get hungrier and greedier and like everybody out here we are going to want podium positions for ourselves.
Sirish: Excellent! You plan to continue with the same riders for next season?
Anand Mahindra: Yes, right now these are decisions that the team is taking, but from what I’m told, yes, they will be continuing for the next season.
Sirish: Mr Mahindra, what makes the Moto 3 class usually attractive is the close relation of the 250cc engine with the race and road bikes. Is it safe to assume that the 250cc Mahindra road bike is set for launch in India anytime soon?
Anand Mahindra: No I would not say that it is safe to assume. Let me put it this way that the first part of your sentence is correct, that we find the Moto 3 category attractive because it is closest to the segment in which we intend to operate. As far as which segment we will operate in, frankly another tenet of the rise philosophy is to accept no limit so there is no reason why we should not get into other segments of the market. As of now we are, as you know, there is no real and immediate plan to get into the 250cc, but certainly this racing category is very close to the market that we are in and therefore has huge brand relevance. That is true.
Sirish: Also racing has made Mahindra’s name quite popular in Europe. Will you use that, will you ride that visibility boost that you are getting to start selling bikes in Europe soon?
Anup Mathur (President of the two wheeler sector): As you know, we are going to be getting to the overseas markets also shortly, maybe in the next year or two because with the advent of our motorcycle portfolio we certainly have ambitions to get into overseas markets as well. In so doing we are already studying the markets and the potential and so on and appropriately if there is a portfolio that is relevant for Europe we will certainly consider that as well. So all relevant markets are on our radar.
Sirish: Anup, one more question. Racing is a way to boost visibility for motorcycles but your motorcycle plans haven’t really taken of too well, like the Stalio has been pulled from the market the Mojo hasn’t seen the light of day. What is happening, when are your bikes going to start rolling out now?
Anup Mathur: We did mention, Sirish, and we said that earlier in the year, that we are recalibrating based on the learnings that we had with our initial launch that we had last year. We are working on recalibrating and the bikes are due to be coming into the market very shortly. Far from withdrawing, we are in fact extremely committed and extremely serious and you will certainly see in not too distant a future, our Stalio back on the streets and duly calibrated to meet the expectations, the requirements that we have set for ourselves. And similarly as far as Mojo is concerned we have not withdrawn that, we are working on that and Mojo 2 is very much on our portfolio to be coming into the market now that we are practically at the end of this calendar year you will see it there in the next year.
Sirish: A lot of manufacturers use racing as way to train their engineers and put them in the high stress environment or racing and then move them into R&D, are you also going to do that? Have you had a lot of exchange of engineers between India and Engines Engineering based in Italy?
Prashant Kamat (Head of Mahindra Engineering): Answer is yes, but I would use the word ‘lot of’, we have started the journey and we will continue on that journey. That’s the forward moving plan for sure.
Sirish: So what has been the take home from this whole season of racing? Have there been any take homes?
Prashant Kamat: It is technology which needs time for absorption but we are on our plan and we will do lot of research in that direction.
Sirish: Do you see an Indian rider competing in you team some time in the future?
Anand Mahindra: Yes of course, and that is the dream everyone has at Mahindra Racing. The question is that you have to get credibility, you have to make your presence felt as a team and you should not be rushing things where you expose people to a level of competitiveness that they are not accustomed to. As far as we are concerned, yes, I can’t tell you when, but as far as whether or not it will happen the answer is a resounding yes. We certainly do intend to nurture an Indian rider in the team at some point.
Sirish: Do you have any plans specifically to unearth bike-racing talent in India?
Anand Mahindra: Well, you know, that’s one of the things that I wanted to discuss with the team, we haven’t had the opportunity to do that. Again you are almost reading my mind, and that is again something on the agenda but we have to figure out how one does that. You know that is the main thrust of the Mahindra Sporting initiatives like Mahindra NBA or the Mahindra youth football challenge which we are doing. Both of these are really talent discovery initiatives and so what we need to do is figure what would be the right way in motorcycle racing for talent discovery but rest assured we will look very hard at that.
Sirish: And will we also see Mahindra bikes racing in local series in India by next year?
Anand Mahindra: I don’t know that I will have to ask Muffadal. Depending on his bandwith, we have to figure out a good way of building up excitement towards the final Moto GP and Moto 3 race in India I think it would make sense but its a little premature to comment on that.
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