New Jaguar Boss Chosen
A new Managing Director JLR Motorsport and Team Principal of Jaguar TCS Racing is set to be announced after the London EPrix later this month. Speculation has been rife for several months that current NEOM McLaren TP, Ian James, could be chosen to replace James Barclay.
An official statement from Jaguar read: “JLR Motorsport have appointed a new Managing Director JLR Motorsport and Team Principal of Jaguar TCS Racing. Their name and effective start date will be the subject of a future announcement.”
New ‘Big Cat’ Tech Chief Chosen?
In addition to a new team principal, Formula E Notebook understands that current Nissan tech chief Théophile Gouzin will be on the way to Jaguar later this year. Gouzin joined Nissan in early 2023 originally as chief engineer. He then became the technical director in March 2024. He has been involved in Formula E since the very start as he was a technical leader for Spark Racing Technologies delivering the original Gen1 car in 2014.
Safety Car Grumbles
There was some questioning of both the non-pass around of lapped cars and then subsequent absence of blue flags in Saturday’s race when both Felipe Drugovich and Sergio Sette Camara were among the leaders when the race returned to green racing action.
FEN understands that there is no specific rule concerning pass arounds as there is in F1 and the FIA WEC and that the race director is not obliged to act on such a scenario. But the blue flag absence baffled many with Sette Camara in an awkward situation while the leading cars attempted to clear him. Additionally, Drugovich’s Mahindra appeared to blindside championship points leader Oliver Rowland who collided with Stoffel Vandoorne’s Maserati MSG.
The lack of blue flags was a pre-agreed procedure within the Pit Boost stops window to avoid confusion if cars went a lap down during the mandatory stops.
Sette Camara told The Race that he “expected the safety car to wave us by because that’s the procedure that I was used to (in other categories).
“We also see that all the time, it is much better to do it like that than to start with back markers in the middle of the way interfering in the race result. I didn’t have many problems with the blue flags because our pace was actually quite strong towards the end,” added Sette Camara.
“We were one of the fastest, if not the fastest in many laps when it was dry, so I could open a gap and then I was by myself behind Mitch, I think others had issues and we got blue flags and obviously there was some interference there. Maybe they do it different next time, I surely think it would be better.”
Classy Cassidy
For once Nick Cassidy got some good luck with the Safety Car allowing him to get back in to contention after serving his 10-second stop/go penalty for inverter replacements after the Jakarta EPrix, early in the race. Cassidy explained to FEN that coming out close to teammate and leader Mitch Evans influenced a change his overall strategy early on.
“It (the strategy) mainly changed because of my gap to Mitch,” said Cassidy. “He was four seconds behind me and I was just trying to stay out of his way, firstly, but secondly, not block the pit stop for him. We were communicating quite well between the two car crews. I knew what his strategy was, but I was just trying to, with the limited options I had, do what we could and I think we maximised it.”
The ABB Engineered To Outrun Award for most progress achieved in races was presented to Nick Cassidy and his race engineer, Geoffrey Lenfant, whose teamwork saw the Jaguar TCS driver rise from 20th to 1st on Sunday after a similarly impressive rise from last to 5th the day before.
Da Costa’a Mea Culpa
Antonio Felix da Costa generally owned the incident with Jake Hughes that saw him penalised 5-seconds and drop from third to 10th in the final classification on Saturday.
“The incident with Hughes was fully my mistake,” said da Costa. ”I was coming out of attack, had a lot of momentum, tried to show myself. He kind of made it look like he was going to let me go, and then he didn’t. And I kind of missed it, so just my mistake.” summarised the TAG-Heuer Porsche driver.
Sette Camara/Beckmann Interface
The incident that triggered Saturday’s Safety Car between Sergio Sette Camara and the driver who took his seat at the CUPRA KIRO last November David Beckmann, saw an immediate apology from the Brazilian to his rival.
“I saw Sette took attack mode, so I was pushing into turn 2, and then I didn’t expect him to dive bomb in turn 3,” was Beckmann’s version of events to FEN. “Then I saw him actually went to the right a bit, turned a bit later, but still got hit twice, and then the rear tyre was completely bent, the suspension was bent and damaged, and I had to retire.”
For Sette Camara, who received a 10-second time penalty, it was a case of an immediate apology to Beckmann for the incident.
“I was in a little pack in the back, which was saving a lot of energy,” Camara explained to FEN. “I made a little mistake with David, put him out of the race. I apologise for that. Of course, it’s never my intention.”
“The strategy (between Porsche and CUPRA KIRO) you could see as they were leading, we were leading,” Modlinger told FEN. “But in these peloton races you cannot clearly instruct or direct this. The drivers worked well together, did not limit each other and tried to help each other, which I want to see and which worked out.
“Beckmann activated very early their attack mode. Their target, I think you have to ask them, but it was clear to bring him to the front, to be in the mix there, which worked out to have one more car there because taking it from the lead is a big stretch, which did not work out.”
Guenther Gutted
Maximilian Guenther rued a front powertrain issue that stopped him on Sunday after he employed a very similar energy banking strategy to winner Nick Cassidy. The DS Penske driver attacked just behind Cassidy on the same lap and got into a strong position only for his AWD to not activate because of the FPK issue. He was called in to the pits shortly after to retire the car.
Volpe’s Emotion
Nissan team principal Tommaso Volpe told FEN that Olive Rowland’s title triumph on Sunday was “for me personally, a big emotional thing in a way.”
“When I came as a Nissan executive to look at the programme, we were tenth in the championship. It was very difficult to convince Nissan to buy the team and to take control of the operations and to make it a pillar of the promotion of our corporate plans for electrification.
“But thank God I had the trust of the board of Nissan. And I think it’s a great satisfaction to deliver when you show a vision and a plan and you deliver it. I need to thank Nissan for the credit and the trust they gave us.
“I think the biggest satisfaction is that we delivered. And we can give value to the brand and we can show that using experience in electrification of Nissan we can win races, which is the most important thing,” concluded Volpe.
Licence Value Discussed
FEN put to Porsche motorsport chief, Thomas Laudenbach, in Berlin concerns that perhaps three available licences (MSG, McLaren and 12th licence) could outwardly diminish the value of existing entrants.
“What we observe, we don’t see is a decrease in the value so far,” said Laudenbach. “We’d rather see how, let’s say, how good the series is developing if we look at the reach and the public awareness. So that’s what we are looking at.
“Because in the end, obviously, this comes down to investment and for us it’s very important that we increase the amount of people we reach, the amount of awareness in public. So that’s important to us.”
Formula E Financial Rationale
On the back of Formula E Operations annual accounts being made public last week, the company has taken the decision to offer a wider view of its financial affairs, telling FEN that its consolidated figures are ‘not publicly available – so in isolation these figures (published precis via UK’s companies house and reported on FEN last Friday) don’t give a complete nor accurate picture of our financial position.’
It is known that Season 10 (2023-24) included the postponement of Jakarta into Season 11, and the cancellation of Hyderabad, which according to a FEO spokesperson “are the key factors in the negative FEO revenue trend year on year.
“Formula E is in full growth mode – expanding our fan base, breaking TV and social records and attracting world-class partners like Google Cloud, Infosys, Autoliv and Fortescue Zero,” continued a statement given to FEN.
“Backed with the unwavering support of shareholders like Liberty Global we’re seeing strong returns from our strategic investments across all key engagement metrics. Their vision and ambition for the series is as bold as ours and continue to support our goal in becoming the second largest motorsport by 2030.“
Nato Victorious at Interlagos
Nissan and Mahindra’s regular drivers, Norman Nato and Nyck de Vries, were both in action at the WEC 6 Hours of Sao Paulo on Sunday, with Nato taking his first ever overall win with teammates – former Formula E race winner Alex Lynn and sometime DS Penske tester Will Stevens. De Vries meanwhile finished a lowly 14th with teammates Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi after a difficult weekend for Toyota.
Williams Holds the Fort
FEN’s editorial assistant Georgia Williams held the fort at Berlin last week as founder and editor Sam Smith attended the WEC 6 Hours of Sao Paulo. Williams also contributed to The Race coverage of the penultimate event of the season. Click HERE to see a selection of articles and news.
