Mira Erda’s winning formula

The Gujarat-based formula racer is encouraging women to take up motorsports and is leading from the front. A report by Manobhava Baruah on what it takes to reach the finishing line.

-  Manobhava Baruah

For the 21-year-old Mira Erda, the Gujarat-based formula racer, it all started way back in 2010, at the age of 9 when she began go-karting with her brothers on the family-owned track in Vadodara. That childhood experience was to stoke her ambitions to take up racing professionally. It was to take her places as well. In 2019, she became the first Indian female to win the Formula 4 in the South East Asia championship held in Malaysia.

In a telephonic interview to Autocar Professional, she said, “I think that win was really needed at that point of time because in previous years I couldn’t perform, but obviously I knew there is so much that I could do but just making sure that I was out there giving my 100 percent made me happy.”

“Becoming the first Indian woman to do so was just addition to that, you know something to make my country proud. It was a great feeling and it just motivated me to perform even better and get the results that I want,” she added.

The Formula series has always been the dream for aficionados of motorsport. The adrenaline rush which one gets by racing against the top formula drivers in a cutthroat competition and being viewed by millions can be quite compelling.