Karting
Karting her way to the top: Mira Erda
The first Indian female driver to race in the Euro JK series recounts how the first step in her motorsports career continues to help her improve.
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It’s like a ladder, racing. To reach the top, you have to start at the bottom first. Whatever you do, there’s always a basic stride, and in racing that first step is karting.
At the age of nine years, Mira Erda had already decided what to do with her life — take up motorsports to become a professional racer. Her first step towards achieving that goal was to get herself into go-kart racing. That was the only thing she could legally drive at that time of course.
Thus, her journey started in 2010 at the age of 10 in the JK Tyre National Rotax Max Championship in India. That wasn't all; she also made her way to Malaysia for some races in the Plus Yamaha SL International Championship in the same year.
Mira Erda
Since then, she has continued competing in the National Karting Championship as well as in international series especially in Malaysia, progressing through the various categories and winning several accolades. She made her LGB (a mid-step between karting and proper Formula race cars) debut in 2014 and did a couple of years in them before her eventual move to the Euro JK (Formula BMW) series in 2017.
But the one missing on her CV so far has been racing in Europe, which is widely regarded as the Mecca of motorsports. She says it was a conscious decision to not do a karting season there, admitting to budgetary limitations — motorsport isn’t cheap!
“When I went into the junior category in karting, many of my rivals started going to Europe. They had a good budget, which we didn’t have [unfortunately],” she said.
“Generally, the drivers who move to Europe, they directly switch to Formula cars. For me, I thought, instead of getting straight into Formula cars, I should drive the Indian version of LGBs to gain more experience of the cars.”
Mira joined the Euro JK series this year
© JK Tyre Motorsport
Transition phase
The decision to continue racing in karts and merge it with LGB, though, allowed her to make a sound transition to the Formula BMW Championship this season. “When I had moved to LGBs from karting, it was tough for me, but the switch to Euro JK has been relatively easier.”
Further explaining her shift from one category to the other, she admitted to finding it tough at the beginning, especially with karting and LGB. Starting from zero in karting, she used a lot of time during sessions to experiment with different lines she would see in the videos of her rivals.
While for LGB, she had to prepare quite differently because of no prior experience of even driving a normal road car. That’s what she attained in the private sessions at her home track, Erda’s Speedway in Vadodara, Gujarat.
“In my first year of LGB, it was a challenge since the fitness level, the stamina and the strength was not there to even turn those cars. Of course, gradually I started working on that aspect, especially on the handling part because the LGBs were quite the cars to handle.”
Her move to the Formula cars this year was a lot smoother since she prepared herself for the shift in the last two years and had a special test at Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit in the Formula BMW machinery.
She used the Malaysia test to learn gear shifting since the Euro JK cars have paddle shifters. Additionally, the valuable experience of handling the more powerful machinery — in terms of speed — was also beneficial ahead of the season. She didn’t want to waste any time learning the car during her first season, instead, she wanted to use it to improve her lap times and bring down the gap to the leaders. “The run in Malaysia allowed me to settle in the Formula BMW cars faster,” she said.
She added that when she started her first weekend in Coimbatore, she was about seven seconds off the fastest time — which was already quicker than the 2016 rookie driver’s time, who had been 12-13 seconds off. By the end of the weekend, she was only about 1.5 seconds away from the quickest time.
She credited India’s seasoned racer Armaan Ebrahim, who currently competes in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia series, for her smoother switch to Formula cars. When they first met, they had been so shy that they didn’t converse with each other, but having entered a mentor-student relationship, Erda and Ebrahim worked in tandem to make the required progress.
“[During karting and LGB races] he would come and tell me how I could improve and get a better start off the line. We also discussed overtaking and the need of controlled aggression,” she said. Ebrahim drove with Erda at Sepang, to allow her to be consistent with the race lines, while he also showed her videos to make her learn gear shifting and lift offs.
Erda would follow Ebrahim on track to keep the consistency level in check. “In the more challenging wet sessions, I managed to stay on his rear for few laps,” she said, adding that she was comfortable with racing on the damp tracks.
Her mentor Ebrahim, meanwhile, feels Erda did a pretty good job as a rookie in her first outing. “Going by how she started when she first tested the FB02 car in Sepang to the race day in Coimbatore, there was a massive improvement,” he said. “There were no mistakes and she came to within 1.5 seconds off the overall best lap time. And we shouldn’t forget she's already competing against our best junior drivers, so the bar is high.”
Mira Erda is supporting Red Bull Kart Fight
© Ankur Salvi / Focus Sports
Karting the 'key' career start
Amid graduations through the different levels of motor racing, Erda feels karting has been the launch pad for her career — pretty much every other driver would feel the same considering how much one learns from it. In the current Formula 1 world, we have Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, who has spoken a lot of times about karting which has given him that belief to push in the F1 car and take some bold calls on track.
“Driving the Rotax karts for six years helped me improve as a racer,” she said while talking about the various aspects one could learn through karting. It gives one the basic test of car handling, the tyres, braking and consistency.
“Like for example, the karting experience I gained at Coimbatore’s Kari Motor Speedway came handy during my LGB debut since I knew the lines to take at the circuit. Straightaway, I was confident while turning in the corner. I also knew the braking points. Basically, I was much more familiar with the track from my kart experience.”
For any racer, karting is key to one’s development. There’s a lot to take and experiment in your early days which can be used when racing in the higher-level Formula cars. For certain, every situation has its own set of difficulties, but it is easier at the lower level of karting to make a mistake and learn from it. Erda is supporting the Red Bull Kart Fight competition, which allows amateur kart drivers to get an opportunity to show off their racing skills in a safe environment.
The reason for Erda to continue racing in karting is to keep learning newer tricks to use in Formula car racing. “Late braking and early acceleration were the two most important things I took from karting to the higher level. It has certainly helped me to catch up with the drivers ahead of me while racing in the LGB, and even in the Formula BMW,” she said.
“I am really good at some corners, so there I can just dive in and fight for position because I have done the same thing in karting. I know how the guys would drive into that corner, so I am much more confident in the Formula cars to just dive in and overtake my rivals.” In addition, she was also able to use some overtaking tricks learned in karting at the higher level.
Armaan Ebrahim has been mentoring Mira Erda
© Mira Erda
Improvement always continues
Despite all the progress made, there’s still a lot of things for Erda to improve on as she steps up to the international level in the coming years. A step-by-step growth is required for any driver and her decision to compete in the Euro JK series this year has already worked in her favour to develop as a professional racer.
“From the first day itself, Armaan told me that I need to brake harder. My brake pressures were not high in the races, so that is one place I need to work on and brake as late as possible,” she said. Other than gear shifting, she feels she needs to develop her own style of driving.
A driver is always remembered for his/her style. We see with Verstappen, since he has come up to Formula 1, his flair has become the talking point for his ever-increasing popularity. For Erda, it’s about creating her own style and not copying someone else so as to challenge the experienced lot in the Euro JK Championship.
Ebrahim adds, “Mira needs a bit more time to get the right feel for the brakes. Her braking technique still needs to be worked on. That also comes down to her strength. Once she develops her fitness levels to where it needs to be, I'm sure you will see a bigger improvement.”
Her first round in the Euro JK showed her where she has to improve to compete with her rivals. She faced difficulty in turning the higher-powered cars which are related to her fitness. It is something Ebrahim spoke about and Erda is well aware of too. “I am working on my fitness after the first round because there I understood how much strength is needed to drive these cars,” she said.
“At some point in time during the weekend, I got tired which severely affected my driving. The handling of the Euro JK cars is really hard and it feels quite heavy. So I need to improve on that. Plus, I need to work on how to control the steering wheel, especially to hold it for a longer period of time while taking a corner.”
Mira Erda has been racing in the Euro JK series
© JK Tyre Motorsport
What's in the future?
While all the improvements go on behind the scenes, Erda has a ladder to climb in her quest to follow her idol Lewis Hamilton into F1. Certainly, it’s a bold claim, especially since the last two female drivers to start an F1 race were Italy’s Maria Teresa de Filippis (three starts between 1958-1959 seasons) and Lella Lombardi (12 starts between 1974-1976 seasons). After them, Brit Divina Galica, South Africa’s Desiré Wilson, and Italy’s Giovanna Amati tried to qualify for races but failed to do so.
The latest duo of Susie Wolff and the late Maria de Villota had their chances in F1 cars with Williams and Marussia, but none could complete a full race weekend. Both Swiss Simona de Silvestro and Spaniard Carmen Jorda tried their luck, but couldn’t get in the F1 car. The only other name currently in the frame is Colombia’s Tatiana Calderon, who is serving as the development driver for the Sauber F1 Team and racing in the GP3 Series. Apart from her, there are several other names, coming through the junior ranks; some of whom are already accomplished in the different categories of racing around the globe.
So it is a tough ask for Erda to find her feet in F1. It’s not just speed, but also about a good budget and some luck. But her dream lives on and she is planning to take a step into international racing next year in the FIA Formula 4 SEA Championship. “If we have a good budget, we will surely go to Europe, but the focus, for now, is F4 SEA and then look at the other options in the future.”
Ebrahim feels the same too. He says there’s nothing to rush through and Erda should take it one step at a time. “It's all about getting the basics right and making sure her foundation is right so that when she gets into the car at any point, she will be quick.”
Recently, Erda joined the Dare To Be Different initiative, which was launched by Wolff along with Rob Jones and has several key female names as its ambassadors from all the fields of motor racing. The idea for D2BD is to bring all the women in motorsport together to provide them with a platform to live their dream of racing or working in motorsport.
“I got associated with them a few months back, but not many people in India are aware of the programme. The way they are growing up as a community, it is encouraging to see them promoting girls and getting more of them into racing.” She is already working on a plan to have the D2BD programme launch in India in a few years to help the growing community of female racers and professionals in the country — not just for four-wheel racers, but also for female bikers.
In terms of her career, it’s still early days for Erda; she has only just started with Formula car racing. Even though it has been a conscious step at a time, the competition at the international level is huge. As we all know, it’s Europe where she has to be if she wants to fulfill her F1 dream. The sooner she takes that step, the better it would be — of course, it is all about the balance. If she gets the right opportunity, along with a handy budget and some luck, she might as well have a crack at it.
Red Bull Kart Fight will be held at SMAAASH Sky Karting in Mumbai and Gurgaon from July till September. To learn more about it, click here.
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