Citroen newcomer & Formula E runner-up Nick Cassidy exclusive: "It was almost too good"

It was one of the biggest changes on the Formula E driver market ahead of the 2025/26 season: runner-up Nick Cassidy left Jaguar TCS Racing after two years and signed up with Stellantis, where he was given a seat with the new Citroen Racing team. In an exclusive interview with e-Formula.news, Cassidy talks about his first few weeks with the new team, the pre-season tests in Valencia and his favourites for the coming season.

Nick, the pre-season tests in Valencia are over and it didn't look like it was your first test with a new team. You seem to have done a lot of work in the run-up.

That's what I said to our guys, I was very proud of this test because it's kind of no secret from the start of August we've been working like crazy. We've done a lot of days in simulator, at the factory, meetings, preparing to be ready for here and I felt like we rolled out in an okay way but also made good steps and yeah, I think we can be positive and happy with the week.

How would you rate the test week in Valencia? How much of the planned programme were you able to implement?

Honestly, 95 per cent. The car was super reliable, didn't have a single issue. Touch wood, of course, but very impressed with the organisation. Every session I think I was top 6 or top 7 on 300 kw of power, which to be honest I've never been that strong across the whole test before in my formula e career. It's almost scary, it was almost too good, so let's wait and see how Sao Paulo is.

"I think we can still make progress"

The season starts in around a month. What are the most important things you still need to do before Sao Paulo?

We have a lot of work on software that we still want to do so it'll be busy weeks. I'm really happy that there is a lot weeks to go still because I think we can still make progress. So it's about using this time to bring as many updates as we can and make sure that they're reliable for Sao Paulo.

What do you think about the new rules?

I look at that in two ways, being able to finish a race with no penalty is great because for the fans and for the viewing and everything means you see the result, you know it's the result. That's important. So I think that's a very good step by everyone.

The one I'm not convinced on is the single use of the attack mode because with the six minutes you can go from last to first, so you can really make your race. However, if you take Attack Mode and you get a safety car, your race is done. So why I'm concerned about that is there will be for sure, sometimes during the season where people will get unlucky and will destroy their race. And that's a little bit scary.

"We have to aim for points from the first race"

Where do you stand compared to the competition and after four days in the car, what do you think is possible for you this season?

We for sure need to be targeting from the first race already points, this is clear. For sure we need to target to be in the duels, this this is also clear. I think on 300 kW we seem very competitive, 350 kW a little bit of work to do. There are some cars who turn on 350 kW and show great performance, but the unknown for me is the race. I didn't really get the race sim.

This year, we were hoping to do a full race simulation with the field like everyone normally does, but they made a red flag. I think they did on purpose to check, and so this is nothing bad. The purpose for the race director and Formula E and everyone was to make sure the systems and procedures work. So they did red flags, they did safety cars, they full course yellow, but amit that there was so much of that, we didn't get a true vision on what the race was actually going to be. We didn't see energy on TV, we don't know what target people had. So, that's a bit of an unknown for me, the race performance.

How many races can you win this year?

I don't want to put a pressure on a target on ourselves like that. Look, we're a group of new people working together, not just me, but we have many new people in the team. It's a big change for everyone and it's a building phase.

So I'm really happy with how we're working, with the progress we've made, but it's no secret we need to keep improving to match the top guys, especially in race conditions. In qualifying condition, I feel like we can have a good season. But let's see what we can do in the races.

Is there anyone here in the paddock who has surprised you in terms of performance during this week of testing?

I'm not surprised, but I think it's clear since Jakarta, Mahindra have been a real reference. And, I mean, I think when you look at de Vries, Mortara and Mahindra, you know, they should have been 1 and 3 I think in Jakarta in the race. Berlin was a bit odd with the weather, so I don't think we saw their true performance in Berlin, and obviously de Vries was in the WEC race. And then in London, they were both very, very strong.

With Jaguar, we were able to fight. But it was clear that de Vries and Mortara were the next best in London. And now they've carried that form here. Their performance, I would say, in the last four events, has been very impressive, and they're continuing to be a reference, so I would that they are the favourites for this year.

What was the most difficult thing for you this summer?

This summer? Working on my French (laughs).