Following seven years of impressive rises through FIA single-seater racing, the 23-year-old from Bangalore joins the Indian team on the Formula E grid.
Starting in Italian F4 back in 2016, Maini has subsequently enjoyed success in British Formula 3, the Formula Renault Eurocup and FIA Formula 3.This year, he finished on the podium for the first time in the FIA Formula 2 Championship in Melbourne, Australia.
Among his responsibilities, Maini will work closely with team members Edoardo Mortara and Nyck Apfelde Vries, and closely in conjunction with fellow Reserve Driver, Jordan King. In the future, he may have an opportunity to test the M10Electro race car, as well as attend selected E-Prix events to support the team.
Kush Maini commented: “It’s a huge honour to be joining Mahindra Racing. Being an Indian driver, and the team being Indian, it feels in many ways like coming home. A lot of my work will be concentrated on the simulator, and hopefully getting in the car for the Rookie Test. I’m just going to try and learn as much as I can, it’s a different style of racing.I’ll be doing as much work as possible on the sim with the engineers to try and be helpful for both Edoardo and Nyck, and to try and help push the team forward on-track.“Mahindra is a huge manufacturer, so for me, it’s a massive deal to be signing with them. Being an Indian brand, it’s the cherry on top of the cake. I’m super excited to get started.”
Mahindra Racing’s CEO Frederic Bertrand added: “We are excited to welcome Kush to Mahindra Racing as a Reserve Driver. He has a great record that speaks for itself in the junior Formula-E and is an exciting talent to add to our driver lineup. We are a very future-focussed team, so the opportunity to support new and emerging talent, such as Kush, is one we are naturally keen to explore. We’ve been watching him in FIA Formula 2 this season, and believe he has all the key skills and attributes to help Mahindra Racing push on for greater success in the future.His synergy with Edoardo, Nyck and Jordan will play an important role in theteam’s continued push for better performance on-track, and off-track he is a superb ambassador for India within motorsport.”
