As if a title fight wasn’t complex enough between two drivers from the same team, you add in to the mix the possibility of the customer squad possibly also assisting their manufacturer mothership, and you’ve got mighty recipes for both glory and also potentially disaster.
It has happened before on several occasions in Formula E. Whether it be some of the infamous Porsche and Andretti passive/aggressive on-track battles of 2023, or the pure intra-team inadvertent disaster that was the contact between Nick Cassidy and Sebastien Buemi in the same season at the London EPrix. The cocktail for volatility can be immense and combustible.
As the 2025/26 season brews up to boiling point in Tokyo and London, both Porsche and Jaguar are facing the possibilities of managing those situations again.
But this time it is al being set against the backdrop of the FIA flexing its considerable all-seeing eyes and focusing in on overt orchestration scenarios for the upcoming Gen4 period when it will be essentially outlawed. For now, though, the possibilities for scanning chess-like moves between four (in Jaguar’s case) or six (in Porsche’s) are available and are tempting. Or are they?
“I think you’ve got to keep the sporting integrity there,” points out Jaguar TCS Racing team principal, Ian James.
“From personal experience, I’ve fallen foul of over-complicating things to that end. So, where you’re trying to manage things in a particular way, trying to be a little bit too clever, I think you end up sometimes tripping over yourself.”
That was a clear, if not specified, touch upon the 2022 London EPrix when during the double-header finale in Docklands, Nyck de Vries ignored a Mercedes team order to let teammate Stoffel Vandoorne pass him for a higher position and extra championship points. De Vries subsequently defended his choice as a “silly” call. It was all a bit awkward for James and his crew.
“I think that at the moment the approach is still going to be very much go out there, race, but keep it fair,” added James, who also told FEN that, that “also goes within the team at the moment. With Mitch and Antonio still being very much in the hunt, we’re not in a position where we should be talking about team orders either.
“We’ve just got to go out there and focus on making sure that we can do the best job possible. How others play it, let’s wait and see.
“I think it’s good that the FIA are going to take a look into how they can, I suppose, take those kinds of opportunities for customers and works teams to collaborate on track or out of the equation, which I think is a good thing to do.”
Exiting Evans in “Great Shape”
Mitch Evans is now into the final two events of his decade long, epic of a story, with Jaguar.
He’s ridden with the Big Cat through sun and storm. Leapt to victory, scrapped with fellow big beats and devoured many a prey.
As it the end comes in sight, Evans will have to focus though on one last attempt at one many believed should have happened years ago. To hunt the title successfully.
His team will be aware that they may have to keep one final eye on him as he goes for this quest. That’s because as a driver who very much goes ‘all-in’ to achieving the aim, a degree of explosiveness comes with it.
“I think he’s in great shape at the moment,” Ian James told FEN in Tokyo.
“That goes across the board. As we know, a driver in this day and age has to do more than just be quick on track. Their to-do list is pretty long.
“Considering the fact that we are going to go our separate ways at the end of this year, his engagement, the work that he’s putting in, has been awesome. I had a chat with his management, Mr (Mark ) Webber and Mathieu (Michel) last weekend. I said exactly the same thing to them.
“Mitch has been someone that I’ve personally wanted to work with. I’ve tried to nab him in the past (for Mercedes). To have the opportunity to do just that over the past season has been great.”
Evans has had a difficult last three races. And his free practice one session on Friday evening was challenging. But within those setbacks he may in fact gain extra fuses to be lit. It has already proven that when his and Jaguar’s collective backs are against the wall, the swings get quicker and the punches get harder. Which is just when they are both most dangerous.
