MUMBAI: Indian international racer Jehan Daruvala is switching tracks. The fourth-generation scion of the Sterling and Wilson Group has hung up his racing suit to join the family business.
The 27-year-old now competes to secure new business contracts and races against deadlines to complete projects. The career move comes as a renewable energy and data centre boom has turned around the prospects of the Sterling and Wilson Group, which specializes in constructing solar power plants and data centres.
“I think this is also a fast track. Even here, there’s no time. Days are busy. Weeks go by very fast. So, I’m enjoying it,” Daruvala told Mint. While he is gaining experience across functions in the entire group, he is dedicating more time to the group’s data centre engineering, procurement and construction business and the diesel genset business.
The young racer has been slowly moving into the business lane over the past 18 months, his father Khurshed Daruvala told Mint.
“For the first two years, he will shadow me through all my meetings. He is going to the sites, going with my teams for sales meetings and he is getting exposure to the entire project lifecycle,” he said.
Jehan Daruvala last raced professionally in the 2023-24 season of Formula E, driving for Maserati MSG Racing. It was his rookie season in the sport. He departed the team at the end of the season after coming 21st on a grid of 28.
The Mumbai boy had joined the all-electric competition after spending four seasons in Formula 2, the penultimate level of open-wheel, single-seater motor racing before Formula 1. Throughout his Formula 2 career, he secured four wins and 18 podiums, the most for an Indian.
During his time in Formula 2, Daruvala raced for the Carlin, Prema Racing and MP Motorsport teams, driving alongside future Formula 1 racers such as Yuki Tsunoda and Franco Colapinto.
Sponsorship hurdle
Previously a member of the Red Bull Junior Team—the Austrian racing outfit’s driver development programme—he also participated in three test drives for the McLaren F1 team in 2022 but was unable to make the cut for motor racing’s highest level.
The senior Daruvala said his son had the best junior single-seater racing record for an Indian. He accrued enough points to qualify for a Formula 1 Super License, allowing him to participate at the pinnacle of the sport.
However, to graduate to Formula 1, most drivers need sponsorship to fund their teams, he said. Drivers usually find corporate sponsors from their home countries. However, motorsport is not as popular in India as it is overseas and Daruvala couldn’t gather adequate corporate backing, dashing his racing dreams, his father said.
“In India, unfortunately, the viewership of motorsports is very, very niche. So, corporates don’t find the bang for their buck when sponsoring. And Jehan was very clear that he doesn’t want this to be a thing where the family brings in money,” Khurshed Daruvala said. “He’s happily swapped into the corporate side.”
The racer is following in the footsteps of his older sister Delna Daruvala who joined the Sterling and Wilson Group seven years ago and is now head of corporate operations.
“I let my kids decide what they want to do. Both were never told that they need to join the family business. Delna joined on her own, and Jehan too has taken to business seamlessly choosing to do so on his own,” he said.
Fourth-generation legacy
The Sterling and Wilson Group was set up by Mehervan Daruwala in 1927. The business started as Wilson Electric Works, a small electrical contractor based in Meadows Street, Mumbai. The business soon found its long-term partner in the Mistry family of the Shapoorji Pallonji (SP) Group. It joined forces with Sterling Investments of the SP Group in 1973 and took on the name Sterling and Wilson.
Today, the group consists of four companies. Listed firm Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy Ltd, and unlisted firms Sterling and Wilson Data Centre, Sterling Generators, and Sterling and Wilson, which is the original company engaged in mechanical, electrical and plumbing services and electricity transmission and distribution.
Delna and Jehan Daruvala are the fourth generation of the group’s founding families. Since the two scions have joined the business, even the employees have been upbeat, taking comfort from the implied business continuity, Khurshed Daruvala said.
The induction of the new generation into the business comes on the heels of a major business restructuring to contain a debt crisis. In 2021, the SP Group as well as the Daruvala family sold a 40% stake in Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy to a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd.