It was an incredible season opener for Jaguar in FE. A weekend which had started on a seriously difficult note, with Mitch Evans’s car stopping during both Practise and Qualifying and Nick Cassidy mentioning speed issues on the radio as well.
The most successful man in FE
Neither of the drivers, who had won the team’s Championship in the past 2023-2024 season, managed to advance to the Duels stage of Qualifying, with Evans even failing to set a time and starting from the last spot on the grid.
However, the 35 laps long Brazilian round had many surprises in store for the duo. In fact, Cassidy had been in the fight for the top spots up until the final laps of the race, when his race ended because of a collision with Gunther and Wehrlein.
On the contrary, Jaguar FE ‘s Evans became the first driver in the history of Formula E to win a race starting from the last spot on the grid in P22. He also joins Sebastien Buemi and Lucas Di Grassi as most successful drivers in the championship, having won the most rounds since its creation in 2014.
How it happened
Evans managed to overtake five cars in a single move at the beginning of the race, prompting a swift recovery aided by the two red flags of the session. The Kiwi driver was extremely surprised by the success he managed to achieve, as he said after the end of the Sao Paulo E-Prix:
“I am still trying to process this one – it was a crazy race. I made up 10 places on the first lap and found myself in the mix quite quickly. After that my focus definitely shifted to getting some big points and possibly a podium, so to come away with a win is incredible.”
The race winner also had kind words for the Germann reigning champion, who crashed out in the final stages of the race going airborne:
“I had some good fortune out there with the red flags, and obviously it was great to see Pascal walk away from that accident, but we managed the strategy really well and the team guided me through, so credit to everyone at Jaguar TCS Racing – that was a sweet one.”
A sad plot twist
On the other side of the garage, it was a completely different story. Cassidy had moved up the ranks during the early stages of the race, leading by Lap 8, and was in P2 when he remained sandwiched between Gunther and Wehrlein.
The former Envision driver opened his post post-race statement by expressing his gratitude for the knowledge of the German driver’s health as well, and went on to praise the new additions to his Jaguar FE colleagues:
“First of all, I’m relieved to know Pascal is ok. That’s the most important thing. I felt like I was a passenger as I had no steering. Obviously, it’s terrible for him and for me, but I’m really glad to know he’s OK.”
“ As for the race before then, I approached today in a different way than I ever have in Formula E and I think it worked for me. I’ve come off the lessons I’ve learned from last year. There’s a new group of people on my car and they’ve done a really, really solid job to put us in the box seat again.”
