Jaguar is one of motorsport’s most fabled brands, but not since the iconic Silk Cut XJR-14 won the World Sportscar Championship in 1991 has it tasted title glory on the world stage.
That all changed on Sunday when it emerged from Formula E’s season finale with both the teams’ and manufacturers’ titles. A lot was made of Jaguar TCS Racing’s failure to win the drivers’ championship in the all-electric open-wheel series with either Mitch Evans or Nick Cassidy, but for team principal James Barclay, winning two titles out of three for the big cat remained a momentous achievement.
“Back in 2016, our first season, the goal was to come and win world championships,” said Barclay (pictured above). “So (to win) Jaguar’s first world championship since 1991, I’m very proud of the team we’ve created that can beat giants like Porsche in a fight for a world championship like this.”
“So incredibly proud of the men and women that have built our team up from scratch. This is our only motorsport program, and we do a phenomenal job. So I’m firstly, incredibly proud, and I’m incredibly happy we fulfill all of our ambitions.”
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Cassidy started Sunday’s final race of the season from pole, and after taking his two Attack Modes early, had been in a position to cycle through to the race win and take the championship until he was hit by Antonio Felix da Costa — a collision which started a chain of events that would ultimately lead to him retiring from the race. Evans, meanwhile, finished behind TAG Heuer Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein after a botched Attack Mode strategy which he branded “unfair.”
Of course, missing out on the drivers’ title, something Barclay admitted will take some analysis to explain, remained a disappointment.
“We’ll go back and have a look at that and analyze. Nick was taken out of a really strong position to win the world championship,” he said.
“We’re incredibly competitive people. We wanted one of our drivers to win the world championship. But, congratulations to Pascal … deserving champion in many respects. It’s not sour grapes.
“I’m really, really proud of this team. So we’ll embrace this, enjoy it, and very much celebrate being teams’ champions.
A few hours after winning the teams’ crown, Jaguar — which also supplies Envision Racing — claimed the Manufacturers’ Trophy after a post-race penalty for da Costa for his coming together with Cassidy. It capped off a stellar year for the brand, which first entered Formula E in the third season of the series’ existence.
“World championships against world-class competition don’t come without absolutely giving everything,” said Barclay. “It’s the last thought at night, the first thought in the morning, the commitment of our company, JLR, to allow us to come and put Jaguar back on the top step of the podium — I always said we should write Jaguar’s next chapter of successes, that’s what this program is about. And I think we stand shoulder to shoulder with some of Jaguar’s best-ever achievements in the sport. So (I’m) very proud of that. But for Mitch, for Nick, I’m gutted. As Mitch said, we’ve maybe done half the job, and we’ll go back and look at that and come back stronger next year.
“But for now, we’ll take stock and absolutely celebrate our first world championship back in world-class motorsport, and we should be very proud of that.”