With both its drivers tied on points, Karun Chandhok believes that a more daring approach may pay dividends for Mahindra in Miami.

In four races, Mahindra Racing drivers Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna have notched up identical results, albeit accrued in a different order. Both currently have 18 points in the drivers’ championship; both have had one DNF; both have had one pointless finish.

“We have had a pretty good start to the season,” says the Indian driver, reflecting on the team’s performance to date which sees Mahindra ranked seventh before the Miami race, with just four point separating the teams occupying positions P4 to P7.

Chandhok’s Formula E season started brightly, with a likely podium finish in the opening race undermined by an overheating powertrain (an issue that has caught out more than one driver and team). But his points haul at each event has been a downhill slope: 10, 8, 0 and DNF, in order.

“We probably hurt ourselves in Beijing, not catching the temperature issue not quickly enough,” Chandhok admits. “In Malaysia we had an issue in the pit stop. I was running second at that point. That was probably our most competitive race. I had the potential to be on the front row but I made a mistake in quali.”

Reflecting on the third and fourth competitive outings in the Mahindra Racing car, and his worst results to date, Chandhok says: “South America was a bit of a disaster. Two races: zero points. In Uruguay I clipped a kerb and damaged the suspension. I was surprised the suspension broke, but I should have been more careful of the kerbs.”

The suspension components were known to be struggling with the weight of the cars in combination with the bumpy tracks and aggressive sausage kerbs. A sequence of incidents in Argentina included Chandhok’s suspension collapsing without any undue contact with kerbs or walls.

“In Argentina, things were going really well: I was running around behind Piquet, controlling my pace to manage the temperature and energy levels,” says Chandhok. “And then we had that suspension issue. That was frustrating.”

Suspension updates are expected this week, which car maker Spark hopes will eliminate the problem once and for all.

The tough South American leg hasn’t fazed Chandhok, who remains bright when discussing his preparation for Saturday’s Miami race: “We’re all doing things, learning things, trying to improve our package. We’ve been a little bit behind in terms of outright performance. In Formula E, you don’t have the time to test and change things like you do on a normal race weekend, so you’re always hesitant to do anything dramatic in case it’s wrong. In Miami, we want to do some stuff in terms of chassis set-up. We know we can go back to basics now if it doesn’t work, so we’re going to be a bit bolder.”

Involving Mahindra’s manufacturing arm in race activities is a key step towards progressing in season one, as well as in season two when the team will become a powertrain constructor.

“I’ve done five or six simulator days since Buenos Aires but most of that work was to correlate real track information with the simulator,” Chandhok explains. “I used to do lots of that sort of thing with Caterham. We’re working with Mahindra Reva in India on simulator stuff. We’ve had engineers come over from India and spend time with us. They’ve built the Miami simulator track out in India with us. We’re sharing more of the work with that part of the company. It’s part of the philosophy for the team, to get the road car company involved.”

One area where the team may look short on pace could be in its “play it safe” approach to system parameters. Rather than trying to push the absolute boundaries of power and energy restrictions, which has landed other teams in hot water, Chandhok says that Mahindra is focused on extracting maximum performance without risking penalties.

“We’re being careful when it comes to power infringements,” he explains. “Peak power spikes up and down constantly around the lap. Lots of factors affect that – temperature, humidity, altitude, how the battery has been stored…The data guys have to keep adjusting and adjusting to make sure we’re not losing performance. It’s not as simple as punching numbers into an Excel spreadsheet. You’re constantly pushing the cap to make sure you’re as close to 150kW or 200kW as you can be, but that’s caught people out. From our standpoint, we prefer to be 1kW under the limit and still be legal, which I think is the right way to do it. It’s better to be one place lower down on the grid than lose 10 places in a penalty.”

Chandhok is relishing the prospect of getting back into the electric racing car after a long break, and he thinks he has as good a chance of a podium as ever. “We’re reasonably competitive,” he states. “I think e.dams and ABT are ahead of everyone else. They’re consistently able to perform, every weekend. Behind them, depending on the day and race, there’s a bunch of us. Andretti have been quick, especially with Vergne; Dragon have been quick; Venturi have been quick. (I can’t believe Venturi don’t have more points. We’ve been unlucky; they’ve been horrendously unlucky.)”

When asked about the championship or season two, it’s clear that Chandhok’s focus is firmly on the event at hand: “I’m approaching the season one race at a time. You have to score the maximum points each weekend. At the end of the season, the cards fall the way they fall.”