Jaguar has officially announced that Nick Cassidy will join fellow Kiwi Mitch Evans in its factory Formula E team in a deal believed to run at least the end of the 2025 season.
The Race broke the news of Cassidy’s move from Jaguar’s customer team Envision last month just ahead of the Rome E-Prix as Jaguar looked to replace Sam Bird after three seasons.
Cassidy, who has intimate knowledge of the Jaguar I-Type 6 car that will stay in the same spec thanks to Formula E’s two-year homologation cycle, notified his previous employer Envision Racing that he would be leaving the team after the Portland E-Prix in late June.
The decision triggered several further moves in the driver market. Bird is believed to have quickly inked a deal with NEOM McLaren to replace Rene Rast and Envision will welcome back former driver Robin Frijns to fill Cassidy’s spot after one year away at Abt Cupra. Both of these moves are set to officially be confirmed in not too long a time.
Cassidy’s three-year deal with Envision came to end at the end of July. It produced five wins, three pole positions and a significant contribution to the teams’ title victory in 2023.
New Jaguar team-mates Cassidy and Evans have 15 wins, 37 podiums, 11 pole positions and 1076 championship points between them, and were second and third behind Jake Dennis in this season’s title race.
Cassidy, 28, has previous experience of driving for a major automotive manufacturer after a lengthy stint as a Toyota-backed driver between 2015 and 2020. He joined Envision for FE after securing the Japanese Super GT and Super Formula crowns in 2017 and 2019 respectively.
Jaguar team principal James Barclay said Cassidy’s “track record speaks for itself” and that he “is someone we have always had our eye on back to his time racing in Japan”.
“Since joining Formula E he has gone from strength to strength and his 2023 season was very impressive.
“Nick was highly motivated to join the team and we are proud to welcome him into the Jaguar family.
“We head into the new season with one of the strongest driver line-ups on the grid and paired with the Jaguar I-TYPE 6 and our talented team we will be looking to once again challenge for both the drivers’ and teams’ world championship titles.”
Cassidy said that he was “very excited to be joining”.
“I am looking forward to racing for a team like Jaguar that has such a successful motorsport history,” he said.
“This season has been my most successful to date, so I can’t wait to get behind the wheel of the Jaguar I-TYPE 6 and fight for points, podiums and wins.
“Looking forward to having Mitch as a team-mate, we have known each other since we were kids and have raced against each other for years, so I’m proud that we will be racing together and hope to continue to put New Zealand on the map in motorsport.”
Cassidy will make his public debut for the team at the pre-season test days at Valencia in October.
Cassidy was actually the first driver to put mileage on the Jaguar I-Type 6 test and development Gen3 car last July when it was shaken down at the Abingdon airfield facility in Oxfordshire.
POTENTIAL 2024 FORMULA E DRIVER LINE-UP
Envision Jaguar: Sebastien Buemi, Robin Frijns
Jaguar: Nick Cassidy, Mitch Evans
Avalanche Andretti Porsche: Jake Dennis, Felipe Drugovich
Porsche: Pascal Wehrlein, Antonio Felix da Costa
DS Penske: Jean-Eric Vergne, Stoffel Vandoorne
Maserati MSG: Maximilian Guenther, Edoardo Mortara
Nissan: Sacha Fenestraz, Oliver Rowland
McLaren Nissan: Sam Bird, Jake Hughes
NIO 333: Dan Ticktum, Sergio Sette Camara
Mahindra: Lucas di Grassi, tba (Jehan Daruvala?)
Abt Cupra Mahindra: Nico Mueller, tba (Kelvin van der Linde?)
