To the outside world hints that Jaguar might not be quite at the races in the first half of the 2024-25 Formula E season first came at Jarama last November.
Amid the chaos of Formula E scrambling to relocate from Valencia to Madrid, word was that the Jaguar had been chasing its tail a bit in private development testing.
On one occasion it had shared a test with a number of other teams, so naturally Jaguar's relative lack of pace was instantly a gossipy crisis. Not many bought it.
But at Jarama, Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans' demeanours told another story.
Then a mask was gleefully pulled on in Sao Paulo. A sensational win from last on the grid for Evans. Crisis? What crisis?
But then the tough times came with a vengeance. From Sao Paulo in December to arriving at Shanghai last week (nine races), Evans had added zero points to his score and Cassidy had just 33, an average of three points a race.
Jaguar was eighth from 11 in the teams' standings, its team principal James Barclay had given notice he'd be leaving this summer and one of its two star drivers - Cassidy - had notified the team he was also heading for pastures new in July.
The absolute nadir came in Tokyo just a few weeks ago with only Cassidy's battling seventh bringing joy, amid a cascade of wreckage (some self-inflicted, some not).
Formula E has a funny way of papering over cracks, yinging and yanging its way through its own crazy world. So, when Cassidy took a brilliant win last Sunday at Shanghai, his first for just over a year, it might be easy to characterise the success as being down to favourable conditions or as much of an anomaly as Stoffel Vandoorne's win in Tokyo a few weeks before.
Yet, there was much more to it than all these things.
Jaguar, as so often is the case, knows how to fight back. It has proved several times that it has grit to go with the panache it delivers on a corporate level. A bit like how in a sense it reflects its team leader Barclay. A professional sheen of marketing savvy, but it doesn't take much to chip away and find the pure racer beneath.
Barclay is acutely aware that the team he leads has been in a struggle for consistent competitiveness this season. After a stellar 2024, much more was expected. At the same time though there have been elements not within Jaguar's control that have reared up and bitten.
"We felt we've had some really great results which for one reason or another haven't come our way through no fault of our own," Barclay told The Race after the Shanghai win.
"Nick being taken out [in Shanghai race one by Jean-Eric Vergne and Edoardo Mortara], Mitch having a battery issue in Monaco, a brake-by-wire issue in Jeddah, being taken out by [Nyck] de Vries.
"There's been so many points this year where we've been able to score really well but it hasn't come our way. The team worked incredibly hard, and they deserve this result, and this is a testament to all the hard work.
"We felt the car has real pace to give at times and unfortunately it hasn't been able to be capitalised upon and today it was."
Quite why the Jaguar I-Type7 hasn't quite been there has mystery surrounding it. There is a very narrow performance window and inevitably Jaguar, like all other teams, is still exploring the quirky Hankook Gen3 Evo spec rubber.
But it's more than that. In a simplified appraisal Jaguar just slipped ever so slightly back in the overall potency of its handling, efficiency and adaptability track-to-track compared to others in the switch to the Evo version of the cars.
Nissan was the big winner we know. Porsche made gains and Mahindra made a giant one. Add in the four Stellantis cars of DS Penske and Maserati MSG, which between them have won three races from 11, and you have Jaguar on overall merit being well outside the points if you go by pure hierarchy.
This is reflected in the points table, which seldom lies. So, in fact, two wins and a podium actually suggest that as a team Jaguar TCS Racing is in fact punching well above its 2024-25 season weight in terms of the results it's producing from a car that's fallen back.
One clear factor in this is Cassidy's form. He may have not scored many points up until Monaco, but his performances have been hot as hell, if under the radar. They were again at Shanghai.
"Nick was peerless today, just phenomenal," reckoned Barclay.
"Fastest in FP3, fastest in qualifying and obviously a dominant race.
"Hats off to Nick as it was an exceptional performance from a truly peerless driver. He deserves it hugely as well because at times luck hasn't gone his way either. For everybody involved this is a huge motivator."
Cassidy has always demonstrated his prowess in the wet. Ironically, his first ever E-Prix win came at New York City in July 2022, when memorably he was confirmed the winner while emerging from his wrecked Envision Audi after a localised storm hit the track and he was among those to aquaplane off as the race was red flagged.
Here's a look at exactly what happened in the wild crash that ended Formula E's #NYCEPrix when the leaders all aquaplaned into the wall - via Hugo Morales - IG: @gonzomau pic.twitter.com/AklA3Yyxhh
— The Race (@wearetherace) July 16, 2022
But, according to Barclay there are also under the radar examples of his excellence in such conditions, one early one that perhaps sowed a seed in Jaguar's mind to sign the Kiwi, which it did in the spring of 2023.
"The example I remember really well was the qualifying session in Valencia [in April 2021] where he put together two incredible sectors and made a slight mistake in the third sector, but he was so far up on the rest of the field," added Barclay.
"That day I kind of saw that potential in these wet conditions. He really does excel, and he's definitely demonstrated that again today. It comes down to that feel he has for the car and the tyre. He absolutely is very, very strong in these conditions."
Will this be Cassidy's last victory in the black and white of Jaguar? There is a chance it could be, although Jaguar's improvement in dry conditions is coming on rapidly, witness Cassidy's excellent fourth place qualifying effort on Saturday at Shanghai.
With Cassidy and Barclay moving on it would be very straightforward to form an argument that a valedictory air permeates Jaguar's Kidlington base and the racetracks of the Formula E world right now. But in fact, it feels like the opposite because from adversity is springing some hope that determination will pay off this season.
Jaguar can still rectify its poor results in the first half of the season and DS Penske's third place position and 62-point advantage in the teams' title stakes is catchable with a bit of luck and a lot of further graft.
