Latest Episode | Cut To The Race Podcast
Jaguar TCS Team Principal James Barclay has revealed the team’s mentality ahead of the final E-Prix weekend in London.
FormulaNerds enjoyed an extended conversation with Barclay at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The car had just returned from a run up the famous hill, during which Karun Chandhok performed exuberant doughnuts. Jaguar made its first appearance at the festival in 2024, the only Formula E team to do so.
As we stood outside the garage in the blazing July sunshine to reflect on Jaguar’s highly successful Formula E season, Barclay jokingly remarked about the weather behaving itself. He also praised the atmosphere of the iconic festival:
“It’s a wonderful time to be in Goodwood any weekend when the sun’s out with these incredible cars around us; it’s very special. It’s a really enjoyable day whenever we’re here..it’s a bit of a community feel as well, right?
“A lot of people in the racing industry bump into people you don’t get the chance to see in the year because of other championship racing elsewhere.
“So a lovely community of various motorsports get together. Great to see so many fans loving the cars here as well. A very special place to be and an honour to be here.”
Two drivers, one title on the line
We then jump into the Formula E finale in London this weekend. Jaguar has much at stake in the finale. Drivers Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans lead the standings, separated by just 12 points, Cassidy having the advantage.
We asked Barclay about how the team prepares for the scenario of having both drivers in the running for the championship:
“It’s actually all all good. If you were to ask a team at the start of the year, do you want to be leading the team’s championship by 33 points? We’re one-two in the drivers championship, you’d take that every day a week, so putting things into perspective it is brilliant.
“We have two incredible racing drivers standing a chance to win the championship, Nick’s got that advantage of 12 points. So, really, he’s in a great place to bring home the driver’s championship, and both drivers and the team are really pushing hard to try to bring home our first team’s championship.
“The last four years, we’ve consistently fought for the title. We’ve led either the driver and a team of Championship in those four years. So, I’m really proud of how the team’s performed consistently.
“All great teams are about how you do not one year, but how you continually do. That’s what we are doing. So the plan is to come into London. Enjoy the process. Do our best, dot the I’s, cross the T’s, and try and bring home this first championship.”
Barclay said the team dynamic will stay the same ahead of the championship finale. He praised his team for delivering the scenario where either could win the title this weekend and said Nick and Mitch continue to enjoy a positive relationship:
“Very good. You don’t lead a championship without both sides of the garage performing to their utmost. Nick and Mitch are both incredibly competitive, but they’ve also grown up together; they know each other very well.
“They have a great relationship away from racing as well. So from that perspective, yes, when they’re in the car with their helmet on and rightly so, they are competitive racing drivers, and they want to win, and that’s what we want as a team as well. So, we all know we’re here ultimately for the team to win championships. We’re a team at the end of the day, and that’s the goal.”
“So it’s going to be about going for both of them to have the chance to win the championship, but the knowledge firstly, we need to win the team’s championship as well.”
Learning the lessons from Portland
Barclay says the team has moved on from its difficult couple of races last time in Portland. Round 13 saw Evans receive a time penalty following a collision with McLaren’s Jake Hughes. Cassidy meanwhile climbed the order and took the lead, Evans recovering to P2. However, disaster struck for Cassidy, spinning out of the lead on the final lap, while Evan’s penalty dropped him to P8.
Round 14 saw a slight improvement, with Evans bouncing back to take P3. Barclay praised his team and performance, and both his drivers on what was a difficult weekend:
“The reflection on Portland is that we were incredibly competitive all weekend. Pole position, And then, if you look at where we were in the races, leading on Saturday.
“Really unfortunate. Nick drove 25 billion laps. He said himself, he had a small mistake. It happens, right? We’re human beings at the end of the day.
“The world’s eyes are watching; it’s just normal, right? So, from a team point of view, there are no issues at all. I feel sad for Nick because he was close to wrapping everything up there, but it happens.
“If you look past that, he’s a phenomenal racer driver that’s done a brilliant job”. It’s a lot of pressure on that race, some radio comms probably around the time as well, which all added pressure.
“So no issues at all and, then, in my view, we then won the race for a second time, with Nick, with Mitch, crossing the line and having the five- second penalty. We didn’t agree with it at the time, but we move on. We respect the decision. So, in a way, we kind of won that race twice, but we didn’t.
“So, if I think about the team’s performance, it was just a phenomenal job. We came back and got a podium on the Sunday. Again, Nick was in an incredible position to come through in the last few laps, but he got caught up in a midfield incident. So that’s unfortunate, but with the kind of pack-style racing we have, it can happen.
“So honestly…it was a very strong weekend performance-wise given the results, but it happens in sport. Again, we still have a 12-point lead to check and a 33-point lead in the championship, and we know we’ve been quick at all circuits this year. We were quick in London last year.
“So what we can do is focus on what’s ahead of us now, and that’s going to be the focus.”
2024 Team evolution
Barclay then elaborated on how the team has evolved not just across 2024 but the last few seasons in Formula E. Targeting its first team’s championship this weekend; it has been a driving force in Formula E in recent seasons:
“Like I said, this is not a one-season thing; we’ve fought for the championship for four years now, but you’re absolutely right, and bringing in Nick as that kind of final piece. of the jigsaw. That has really shown that effect.
“We’ve scored more points this year than we have ever done, And I think we’ve scored more points now than any other team has ever done without winning the championship. So, it’s been an incredible season.
“We’ve scored an amazing run of points, and that is through great teamwork. The cars are performing absolutely brilliantly. The design team and the engineering team that built our car have produced a phenomenal car in the I-Type 6.
“The team of race and the team, everyone is doing their upmost their best, as the drivers are performing at an incredible level. So it’s all the constituent parts of the team, so it’s what we need, and we’re racing in world-class competition. We wouldn’t want it any other way, either; racing teams like Porsche, Nissan, and McLaren, you have to be at the top of your game.
“So it’s a testament to how competitive the championship is. But very proud of what we’re achieving, and one final step next weekend to take.”
Fan engagement
We asked Barclay how the team engages fans ahead of this weekend’s finale in London. He referenced Goodwood before revealing the support planned for the final races of 2024:
“Really good question. That’s why we’re here at Goodwood, right? So we’re here at Goodwood, creating excitement for the final race in London. It’s been amazing to read reaction, reception from people as we’ve been around and about…so to your point, we’re here with the fans. Goodwood is about the racing fans, and that’s why we love being here for that.
“Then next weekend, yeah, we have around three and a half thousand guests coming to see us, let alone other fans coming to the race. So, it’s going to be a huge race. No doubt, we’re going to have home support, and I’m really looking forward to that. It was amazing last year.
“I know we can count on our fans, our employees, sponsors, partners. Everyone is going to be at the race, that’s going to give us a bit more momentum as well—that home-ground advantage. I think we’ll definitely try to use it to our advantage.”
Electrifying long-term goals
For our final question, we asked Barclay about the long-term aspirations and goals for the team beyond this year. Barclay laid out the ambitious plans in line with Jaguar’s car brand’s transformation to an all-electric offering:
“We have a long-term commitment to the pinnacle of electric racing. From next year, Jaguar becomes an all electric modern luxury car company. So Jaguar becomes fully electric as a car company next year. This is our Formula One, which is the simplest way of putting it.
“This is the pinnacle of electric racing…and we are committed long-term to Formula E. We announced in Monaco this year that we are committed to the Gen 4 era through to a minimum of 2030, with a new set of rules coming in 2026.
“We already started the design work on that car, so we’re committed. We’re loving it. We’re loving having Jaguar, back on the world stage winning races in a world championship… we’ve won a lot of races. We’ve had a lot of pole positions.
“Our goal is to start collecting championships and it’s very competitive. We’ll do it some years who may not do it other years. But we’re here to stay…we’ve cemented the racing kind of activity back into the DNA of Jaguar, and it’s a really exciting journey to be a part of”.
Feature Image Credit: Jaguar TCS Racing