Electrifying in the rain: How Jaguar fought back with Shanghai Formula E win

The second part of our Asian leg in the 2025 schedule really brought some special memories throughout June as we registered Jaguar TCS Racing’s second victory of the season and the third in total for the Jaguar I-Type 7.

Nick Cassidy had shown in Monaco with a third place and then again in Tokyo with strong points finishes that we could challenge at the front of the field, and in Shanghai he delivered one of Formula E’s most masterful performances in truly dreadful conditions.

There are certain things in racing that stick in my memory and one of them is the great equaliser of wet conditions. I remember Nick first piquing my interest in an otherwise uneventful qualifying session in Valencia in April 2021. That day I saw his potential while racing in the wet. He excelled, and he definitely demonstrated that again in Shanghai. It came down to that feel he has for the car and the tyre. He is strong and confident in his ability in those conditions.

The win also cemented our belief in what we are doing this season, despite some tricky races. In the times when you are up against it, irrespective of the reasons, it is easy to become disillusioned and demotivated. The opposite is true of the Jaguar TCS Racing team this season and that shone through with Nick’s China win.

“My priority now is to maximise  the results over the rest of the season”

From there we moved on to Jakarta, which returned for the first time since 2023 after national elections meant last year’s initially planned event couldn’t go ahead. The track in Jakarta was really dusty. That was a legacy of it being a ‘pop-up’ street track and the fact that the beach is just a few hundred metres away. What that meant was that as soon as you went off-line you lost a lot of lap time, if not the car itself.

That all became clear when Nick got slightly off-line in his qualifying duel semi-final, and it ultimately cost him a chance to fight for a front-row position, but he started a strong fourth after some excellent work at the wheel.

Mitch Evans just missed out on the group stages after being forced to go off-line and put dust on his tyres by Pascal Wehrlein, who backed the pack up in his Porsche and ended up getting a penalty for those actions.

The race began well for Nick but unfortunately the safety car and a full course yellow became the determining factor for the outcome of the race. He was in a strong position racing against Edo Mortara and eventual winner Dan Ticktum, with an energy advantage and pace to be ahead. Nick managed to defend his position when others used their Attack Mode advantage and being up on energy, we felt we were in a position to be fighting for the podium at least, maybe even a win.

Unfortunately, the timings of those safety cars just neutralised our Attack Mode deployment and we couldn’t get the advantages. It’s always the risk with these interventions and in Jakarta we lost out. Ultimately Nick did a great race and took away 10 points for fifth, which elevated him to eighth in the drivers’ standings and helped us to move up to seventh in the teams’.

There was more bad luck for Mitch as he got hit by Jean-Éric Vergne early on when JEV locked up and hit Mitch, causing a lot of rear end damage. We saw a huge spike in his rear tyre temperatures because of the wing rubbing it.

I feel for him because, again, I think we had the pace, but that damage ultimately is what determined his race from an early stage and all he could do was to try and hang on with the car balance he had to take 12th position.

We really enjoy racing in Jakarta because the important aspect with the market there is it doesn’t have any other racing world championship events, and we are the pinnacle of motor sport in this country when we visit. That’s a really crucial point.

Indonesia is a huge market which has real potential to grow. It has an audience relevance when you look at the data of who also follows Formula E, and it’s a country which is looking to increase its adoption of clean energy, clean mobility and the benefits they bring from an environmental point of view.

Next up are the final two events of the season in Berlin (July 12-13) and at London ExCeL (July 26-27). We’ve tasted success at both of those venues before.

Our home race in London will be special; it always is. It is a celebration with our fans, our fellow colleagues from JLR and all our team partners. On a personal level, London will be my final race with Jaguar so it will be an emotional one. Between Shanghai and Jakarta, I went to Le Mans where it was announced I’ll be joining McLaren as executive director and team principal of McLaren Endurance Racing, leading the World Endurance Championship Hypercar programme which kicks off in 2027.

But until August I am ensuring that we sign off this season in the best way possible. It has been an honour and a privilege to lead Jaguar back to wins and our first title since 1991 with an incredibly talented and committed team and board of management. We have made lasting and special memories.

My priority is to now maximise the results over the rest of the season, cherish every lap and leave it in a great place for the future.

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