Mahindra Racing have confirmed the hire of Mercedes AMG HPP team leader Josef Holden, who will take up the role of performance director for the upcoming 2020-21 Formula E season.
After a disappointing campaign, Mahindra are pressing ahead with plans to strengthen their team personnel with Holden seen as a key hire to compliment additional restructuring earlier this year.
After several years using the Campos-affiliated company QEV to manage their trackside operations, Mahindra now have their entire team working in-house after moving into to a new, permanently facility earlier this summer.
Holden now takes up the role of performance director with former chief engineer Toni Cuquerella – who deputised as team principal in Berlin due to Dilbagh Gill’s absence – now switching his focus to “special projects” in a consultancy role.
Prior to his arrival, Holden spent almost six years with Mercedes High Performance Powertrains in Brixton, first as a performance engineer and later as strategy team leader – a role he’s held since August 2016. Prior to that, he held engineering roles in Formula Renault 3.5 and in Formula 1 with Marussia, and was Jules Bianchi’s performance engineer at selected events during the 2013 season.
Speaking of his move to Mahindra, Holden said: “Throughout my career I have striven to pursue innovative ways to exploit data and engineering principles to push power unit performance boundaries with the ultimate goal: to win. The next chapter for me is to continue this pursuit with Mahindra Racing. Technology is forever marching forward and I strongly believe that Formula E leads the charge for the future of pioneering, high-performance motorsport.
“I look forward to working with the team and building upon the legacy that Mahindra Racing has already forged within Formula E.”
Team principal Dilbagh Gill added: “We are delighted to have Josef joining the team as Performance Director. His experience will prove invaluable as we look forward to building on the many positives of last season and taking the team back to where it belongs; to the front of the grid.
“We are also excited about Toni [Cuquerella]’s new role. His contribution and leadership to date at Mahindra Racing has been immense and we’re eagerly awaiting the moment when we can talk about some of the programmes he’ll be working on.”
