Official: Ian James becomes new Formula E Team Principal at Jaguar after McLaren withdrawal

Ian James is to become the new team principal at Jaguar TCS Racing, succeeding James Barclay. The team announced this in a press release on Thursday. After Mercedes-EQ and McLaren, the Briton will take over the management of his third Formula E team on 1 October 2025.

Back in April, it was announced that former Jaguar Team Principal James Barclay would be moving to McLaren in the World Endurance Championship (WEC). His successor has now been officially announced: Ian James will take over as team principal at Jaguar from October. The first media reports about this switch appeared back in July.

James, who has also been appointed Managing Director of JLR (Jaguar Land Rover) Motorsport, has a wealth of successes to his name in Formula E, including four world championship titles with Mercedes-EQ: two teams' titles and two drivers' titles. In the 2021 and 2022 seasons, James won the electric world championship with Nyck de Vries and Stoffel Vandoorne. Most recently, he held the role at the helm of the McLaren team in Formula E.

James: "It will be a priviledge to lead Jaguar TCS Racing"

"I'm incredibly proud to be joining Jaguar – a brand with a unique history of technical innovation through racing and now with an exciting all-electric future ahead of it," says James. "To be able to lead the talented team at Jaguar TCS Racing to fight for success on-track while pioneering EV development through competition will be a privilege."

Chris Thorp, Chairman of JLR Motorsport, says: "Ian joins Jaguar TCS Racing at a particularly relevant time for the Jaguar brand – as hardware and software technology proven on-track will transfer to the next generation of Jaguar all-electric road cars previewed by Type 00 – and also for Formula E as we are only a year away from the GEN4 era of regulations. I'm looking forward to working with Ian on leading the team to further success.”

With which driver pairing James will start his first season as Jaguar Team Principal in Formula E is not yet known at this stage. The only thing that is certain is that New Zealander Mitch Evans will continue to compete for Jaguar in the coming season - his tenth season for the team. However, it is not yet known who will take over from Nick Cassidy, who has left the team for Citroen Racing. Antonio Felix da Costa, who announced to part ways with Porsche last week, is considered the favourite to replace Cassidy.