Amit Saraswat 
The 23-year-old racing driver, hailing from Bangalore, India, has joined Mahindra Racing as a reserve driver for season 10 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship. Kush Maini takes the vacant spot of Jehan Daruvala, who went on to join the Maserati MSG racing team.
Kush Maini started his racing career with Italian F4 back in 2016 and participated in racing series such as British Formula 3, the Formula Renault Eurocup and FIA Formula 3. Kush currently races in the Formula 2 racing championship with Campos Racing. Earlier this year, Kush claimed his first podium spot in Melbourne after a tough battle with F1 driver Charles Leclerc’s younger brother, Arthur Leclerc.
Back in October 2023, Kush Maini announced that two-time Formula 1 world champion Mika Hakkinen would serve as his mentor to further grow in motorsports. Mika has joined hands with Mahindra Racing to share the future of the Indian racing team and contribute to guiding and mentoring Mahindra Racing drivers.
Kush Maini will work closely with 2 Mahindra Racing drivers — Edoardo Mortara and Nyck de Vries and closely in conjunction with fellow Reserve Driver, Jordan King. His role will include simulator sessions, mark presence at select E-Prix and support the team. In addition, Kush could also possibly test the team’s M10Electro race car in future.
The news from Mahindra Racing follows the recent confirmation of the Hyderabad E-Prix, which will take place on February 10, 2024, in Hyderabad. The E-Prix returns to the city after a successful debut race in February earlier this year. While Kush Maini has joined Mahindra Racing as a reserve driver, Jehan Daruva will race for the Maserati MSG racing team.
Commenting on the news, Kush Maini said, “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 formulae 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 the team’s continued push for better performance on-track, and off-track he is a superb ambassador for India within motorsport.”
