‘We were strong… or so we thought’: Why Mexico didn’t go to plan for Jaguar’s Formula E team

It’s always good to be back in Mexico City. It’s one of the best on the Formula E calendar with a sell-out crowd of such passionate fans. In fact, as I am writing this, it is two hours after the race and there are hundreds of fans outside our garage chanting the names of our drivers. It’s a pleasure to race in front of so many of them and to amplify that Formula E is such a competitive world championship now.

With Formula E being incredibly competitive you often get extremes in experiences from a results perspective and that’s what we at Jaguar TCS Racing have faced in the first two races of the season.

Pre-Christmas we had that amazing from-the-back-of-the-grid win for Mitch Evans. Mexico City was different – we had really good potential but we didn’t get the most that we could have done from the weekend. But we will take a lot away from what we experienced as a team there.

We made some progress towards the end of a tough first practice session and then going into qualifying both Mitch and Nick Cassidy were strong and made it through the duels, or so we thought!

Unfortunately, Nick was penalised for a throttle pedal map infringement (makers have to homologate a throttle pedal map for the FIA to monitor the traction of the cars) and was forced to start the race at the back of the grid, while Mitch began the race in a strong fifth. It was a tough opening lap and Mitch was biding his time and we had a really good opportunity with our last attack mode power boost to vault the cars around us. A late race safety car was perfectly timed. We were looking good for a strong finish before a really unlucky incident where Mitch tripped over Nico Müller’s Andretti Porsche after it had a sudden legality power cut. That meant Mitch had nowhere to go and hit the left rear corner, which took him out. Maybe without that we could have fought for fourth.

It would have been a just reward for the team but racing is sometimes not as simple as that. What we will do is now learn from it because although we were in the front pack, we always want to be fighting for more success and in Mexico City we weren’t quite there.

“It was a no points score for us. The last time that happened was in 2023”

From Nick’s perspective he raced well but it wasn’t like São Paulo where the potency of the attack mode could carry you through to the front. When you have a large portion of the field around you on the same strategy you don’t have that clear overtaking opportunity. It’s not dissimilar to a DRS train in Formula 1, where you can’t make that progress unless you throw a completely different approach on the strategy.

Unfortunately, it’s not always possible to create epic fightbacks like São Paulo. Having said that, Nick still fought tooth-and-nail but was unable to come away with points on this occasion, as it is clearly quite circuit dependent this year with the attack modes and how useful they are to make progress.

That all transpired to bring a rare no points score for us. To put that into context, the last time that happened was 18 months and 23 races ago at the first Jakarta ePrix in June 2023! It’s an unusual feeling and although it’s frustrating, at the debrief we said, “This is where the change happens and we’ll use the experience to our advantage for the future.”

It’s clear that the Jaguar I-Type 7 Gen3 Evo has pace, but we didn’t get it together and in Formula E unless you practice and qualify well it can be tough. But that’s why we are here, to be challenged every session, every day.

We now head to Jeddah and the first double header of the season, which is likely to see the use of energy boosting pitstops for the first time in another intriguing innovation for Formula E.

Before Mexico City, 2025 started off in exciting fashion for JLR Motorsport as we announced that for the first time in the Defender’s history we will enter a works team into the Dakar! We announced this at the Dakar where the Defender was supporting the event as official car partner, and being there to see it was a remarkable experience. In 12 months we’ll be back with a three-car Defender entry at the start of a full, three-year World Rally-Raid Championship campaign. To take the Defender to the most iconic motor sport challenge is a dream come true.

Ahead of committing we worked hard with the FIA and the ASO to develop and evolve new regulations for the Stock category, which is a production-based category in W2RC. Stock will now be far more competitive and represents an opportunity to bring the Defender to rally-raid. It’s the right platform to demonstrate its capability.

Ourselves and other manufacturers have been part of the Technical Working Group to refine those regulations and we’re really excited about the project. We’re the first manufacturer to fully commit and I think the potential is huge for the Defender.

It is worlds apart from Formula E in a sporting sense but what better place to showcase the durability and capability of the Defender than in the most arduous and challenging rally-raid event in the world.

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