The victory in the second Diriyah E-Prix projects Nick Cassidy and Jaguar to the top of the championship standings. The New Zealander is the only one to have achieved a podium finish in all three races held so far, demonstrating once again how consistency is a fundamental skill in Formula E. The number 37, however, remains down to earth. Immediately after crossing the finish line in first place, Cassidy opened up on the radio to remind us that “difficult days will come”explaining itself better in the traditional usual post E-Prix press.
Difficult calendar
“There are some types of corners where we are not as competitive as our rivals, we have to keep working”Cassidy says. “Last year the Jaguar-powered cars weren't particularly incisive on tracks like Portland and Jakarta, while we went better on circuits like Rome, of which however two races will be missing this year. Furthermore there will be the debut of Shanghai and Misano, which could be four races that will go more in favor of Porsche. There are still 13 races to go, but at least 6 of these will be very difficult.”
Jaguar's third-generation powertrain inherited some of the qualities of the Gen2 package. In detail, the British cars show excellent potential in low-speed corners and especially in straight-line braking, recurring characteristics on traditional city tracks. In recent years, however, Formula E has taken action a slow migration towards permanent circuits, on whose fast corners Jaguar suffers a certain delay from its direct competition. Hence Cassidy's appeal to take advantage of the six weeks of break to improve, working on set-ups and software: “Many teams have the potential to become stronger. For our part, there are areas we want to improve.”
However, the New Zealander is aware of the need to divide resources between the 2024 campaign and the development of the package for next year, when manufacturers will be able to homologate a new powertrain: “Several teams are concentrating on the Gen3 Evo for next season. Splitting your time between attacking this championship and developing a competitive package for next year is not easy. This will probably be a period where we focus on both.” However, the pace shown by Andretti and Jake Dennis, winners of Friday's race, could push us even further to develop the current package. Cassidy doesn't hold back his words when commenting on the world champion's first victory: “It's quite scary, it's impressive. I've never seen someone in the Gen3 era win by 13 seconds, he's insane”.
The call for battles on the track
The meeting with journalists is also an opportunity for the Jaguar driver to comment on two incidents that occurred to his teammate. In Saturday's race Mitch Evans twice came to blows with Jean-Eric Vergne, first during his return to the racing line after activating Attack Mode and then in the braking attack on the last lap. The incident pushes Cassidy to express himself on the aggressive style of the DS Frenchman: “These are not incidents I was involved in. Commenting is difficult, but I do it because I think that is an issue that needs to be talked about in meetings [tra piloti]”.
“The first time Jev practically pinned Mitch against the wall. I would say it's pretty clear and I'm surprised nothing has been done about it. Then on the last lap, when Mitch threw himself on the inside, Jean was braking straight ahead, but then veered slightly to the right. Mitch reacted and started a pendulum effect. Knowing how dirty the line is there, if you start to slide there is no way to recover. Vergne is a very smart guy, he knew what he was doing. He was borderline correct in my opinion. I'm talking about this because I'm scared that it could happen to me too in the future.” The New Zealander will be able to make his arguments known no earlier than March 16, the date of the Sao Paulo E-Prix, the first scheduled after India's cancellation.
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