Nick Cassidy shed some light on the incident that cost him a chance of taking the championship fight to the final race.
Photo credit: Formula E Media Bank / Simon Galloway
After an absolute rollercoaster of the race, it’s been Jake Dennis who claimed the Formula E World Championship title ahead of Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans, but it’s not as straightforward as it might seem. His main rival in the championship Cassidy has been plagued with bad luck the past two races – first an incident with Evans in Rome that left him without points that round, and an even worse situation in London that will definitely leave a sour taste in his mouth.
Almost midway through the race he had contact with his own teammate Buemi, who did not want to let him pass and left Cassidy with damage, that eventually caused him to not finish the penultimate race of the season. His DNF did not only mean that Cassidy was out of the championship fight, but also compromised the position of Envision in the Constructors Championship, bringing Jaguar closer in points and in real possibility for them to take the title out of their customer team’s hands.
Cassidy lost his P1 and dropped to P3 already after he claimed his two attack modes, which left everyone puzzled. Asked about it after the race, the Kiwi said: “I already done my two attacks. I let Sebastian pass, trying to be nice to the team, trying to help the team out, trying to help his race.
“I offered to give up the lead, even though my race was “won”. I lifted off and I let him pass to support him. We’re also fighting for the team championship and I’d like to think I’m a good team player. Maybe I’m too good a team player.
“It’s a big deal to win the team championship. I thought I could still win the race and support his race. I done to my two attacks. The cars in front of me had not done their attacks.So I was just trying to help him.”
When asked if he felt like he played the team game too much this year in terms of the championship for Envision, Cassidy responded: “I wouldn’t say (I helped Sebastian) ‘too many’ times this year. I think my team’s been great at supporting us both.
“I’m not here to give negative comments about the team or the situation. I think, look, we got kicked in the nuts in Rome. We got kicked in the nuts a bit today. The Rome incident was not intentional on anyone. Today? Maybe. I just needed to put my head down and win.”
Throughout Season 9, Cassidy won three times and stood on the podium on four other occasions, while only missing on points in three rounds out of 15. In comparison, Buemi missed on points on four occasions, and he scored only one podium this season (in London after Antonio Felix Da Costa received a three minutes penalty). After the DNF in London, Cassidy dropped from P2 to P3 in Drivers Championship, promoting Evans.
When asked if the feeling of being a good team player was any consolidation for how the season has panned out, he finished: “I think it almost makes it worse because sometimes you’ve just got to win the race.”
Envision Racing and Jaguar TCS Racing are currently tied on points in the Constructors Championship. It will go down to the wire tomorrow in the last race of the Season 9 of the FIA ABB Formula E World Championship.
