Jaguar solid in Mexico: Cassidy celebrates "most complete day in Formula E", Evans complains about steering

Jaguar TCS Racing started the season with a good result at the Mexico City E-Prix. Nick Cassidy finished third on the podium in his first race for the team, while Mitch Evans came fifth. While Cassidy was highly satisfied, the race went anything but to plan for Evans.

After Evans' best time in the second free practice session, both Jaguar drivers reached the semi-finals of qualifying, but lost their duels to Sebastien Buemi and Pascal Wehrlein respectively. As the two New Zealanders in Jaguar service had committed an infringement of the rules in the 1st free practice session on Friday - they had not driven into the garage during the interruption of practice due to Max Günther's accident, but had parked their cars in front of the garage - they were each dropped back one position in the grid.

This meant that Max Günther, of all people, moved up to third place, while the two Jaguar drivers started the race from positions 4 and 5. Cassidy and Evans also held these positions in the first third of the race, which they both contested very defensively and inconspicuously.

While Nick Cassidy passed Max Günther shortly afterwards and remained within striking distance of second-placed Buemi, Evans was unable to keep up with the pace at the front. He gradually lost ground and was only able to keep Jean-Eric Vergne behind him with difficulty. Other drivers also caught up with the two, so that a whole train formed behind Evans. Crossing the finish line, Edoardo Mortara in 13th position was just over three seconds behind the Jaguar.

Evans: "It's frustrating and I'm annoyed"

After the race, Evans complained about a problem with the steering of his car. "I've never experienced it before," he confessed to Motorsport.com. "The steering weight was super heavy, and I was locking up at some of the corners and I was just struggling to turn the wheel. It's the most bizarre feeling."

"We'll check the rack but it's probably something on the set-up we didn't change," he continued. "It's frustrating and I'm annoyed. P5 is fine, it could have been worse, could have been a bit better but there was not much passing in the race so probably a P4 was the best I could have done today."

Cassidy: "My most complete day in Formula E"

Nick Cassidy, on the other hand, drove home third place and was delighted with the result of his first race for the Jaguar works team. "I feel this was probably my most complete day I've ever put together in Formula E and it's a really good start with Jaguar," said the world championship runner-up.

Kicking off the season with champagne & confetti ?#MexicoCityEPrix ?? pic.twitter.com/IbqO1dieUS

— Jaguar TCS Racing (@JaguarRacing) January 13, 2024

"I honestly didn't really feel connected with the package this weekend, I struggled a lot and so to have this result is a really nice start," he continued. "I think the penalty that dropped us back one spot probably really hurt the outcome of being able to challenge for today's win, but I can't complain, it's a nice start for us as a team."

Because Cassidy also secured the additional point for the fastest race lap, he takes 16 points home from Mexico and is also in third place in the overall standings. Jaguar is second in the team standings with 26 points, just two points behind leaders Porsche. The next race of the 2024 Formula E World Championship will take place on 26 January in Diriyah.