Jaguar's title implosion leaves too many uncomfortable questions

Amid the celebratory T-shirts, confetti and champagne, the post-finale smiles amid the Jaguar Racing crew were only activated to half-beam below Formula E's glitzy London E-Prix podium.

Standing on it was one of its faltered title protagonists, Mitch Evans. Just below, locked in an office after an early bath, was the other, Nick Cassidy.

Both had a strong claim that they should have taken the drivers' title. But both fell short for different reasons that had similar traits.

Each failure to make them world champion also had roots in what appears to have been a surprising, freestyle intra-engineering team strategy.

Where did it all go so wrong?

The Race understands that both Cassidy and Evans were told they were free to race each other in the finale but that if a decision for one driver to support the other was needed it would be made clear.

After Pascal Wehrlein moved up to third behind the Jaguars amid an early couple of safety cars, Cassidy was told by his engineer Phil Ingram: “OK Nick, I’m working with Josep [Roca, Evans’s engineer] and I’ve got a good idea for you, I won’t tell you just yet.”

That seemed to put Cassidy on edge, as he replied: “My concern is the attacks. I can already be flat in [Turns] 1, 10 and 16.”

Having led from pole, Cassidy believed Evans was going to back Wehrlein up so both could take attack mode without crucially being passed. But it didn’t quite happen as planned, with Cassidy losing out and emerging in third behind Wehrlein - who split the Big Cats.

Across the garage, Ingram and Roca were both seemingly adjusting their driver's strategy. Was this with or without consultation with the wider strategy engineering group? Surely not. But that still remains unclear.

The question here is did Evans personally push back? Ingram informed his driver that he did.

Ingram: "So, Mitch has been told but he’s pushing back on the plan."

Cassidy: "Yeah, I can see that. Now I’ve just wasted energy, so what are we doing?"

PI: "Watch him, I’ll keep you posted."

NC: "Yeah, I am, he’s on my arse. I’ve just wasted energy here defending. This is why I said be smart!"

Ultimately, all this attempt at choreography hurt both drivers as Cassidy lost out to Wehrlein and Evans was left at the front of the field completely exposed, under pressure from Wehrlein and creating the hole in the air that Wehrlein was lapping up gratefully.

Porsche was basking in Jaguar's strategy chaos and frankly couldn’t believe its luck.

“For us one key move, that we did not expect, was that Cassidy drops back taking the attack mode and is behind Pascal,” Porsche Formula E chief Florian Modlinger told The Race.

“This was a key thing in the whole race. We didn’t expect that they would play that, that the Jaguars would drop behind. As soon as Cassidy dropped behind Pascal, we were in the game.”

With Evans forced into defending from Wehrlein, his Jaguar was therefore losing the energy battle, and subsequently, the ability to fight all-out from a relatively early stage.

Evans's anger and confusion

After the drama, Evans was composed but pointedly incandescent, telling The Race that “it’s been discussed for a few days that if we’re in these sort of situations what the rules of engagement are”.

“We came to an agreement that basically if it came down to that situation that we actually were in, the driver and engineer could do what they wanted or have a free rein to pick and choose when to do their attacks and the strategy team wouldn’t get involved as much,” he said.

“And then a few minutes into the race I get told to give Nick a gap and allow him to come out in front of me, so I feel completely blindsided by that.”

There seemed to be a discrepancy in how the two sides of the same garage were working now, despite their clear and obvious intentions being to ensure that the teams' title was won.

This was ultimately achieved, bringing Jaguar’s first world championship since Teo Fabi triumphed in the 1991 World Sportscar Championship, and the obligatory celebratory T-shirts bore testament to this. Antonio Felix da Costa's post-race penalty also ensured the first-ever manufacturers' trophy went the way of Jaguar rather than Porsche.

Yet, the confusion afterwards was palpable and the two titles were of little comfort to Evans or Cassidy.

Ingram and Roca were completely exhausted and understandably exasperated after it all. It was hard not to feel for them as they half-heartedly joined in the team celebrations underneath the podium. Ultimately, they had been, unlike the Jaguar I-Type 6’s, not in a world that was black and white. Just lots of grey.

Evans, amid the dejection, was personally confused after the race, adding that he was “not sure how the comms worked” and that he was “sure my side of the garage weren’t happy about it, so I don’t know where it’s come from, but I was basically told to let Nick do his attack for free”.

“I guess they put all their eggs in one basket, that’s the way it felt,” he said. “The team’s got a lot of justifying to do. Because that was never spoken about ever and that’s what f***** me for the world championship.”

“As I said, [I was] blindsided because that was not what was explained to me before the race.”

The fact that Evans missed his attack mode activation at the end of the race was of course significant but it was merely a considerable rock of salt that entered the wound.

“That is what exposed me to have to wait to do my attacks and missing the attack at the end. It’s all a bit strange," Evans said. "I thought the line was fine but, to be honest, I had to win to get the job done because I would have been equal with Pascal if I had finished second, him third [and Wehrlein would have been champion on countback]."

Even if he'd taken the attack mode correctly, Evans's energy deficit to race winner Oliver Rowland and Wehrlein in the latter stages would have made beating them tricky - by that point the big damage had been done.

Were there equal opportunities?

Jaguar has mostly accomplished strong orchestration between two very evenly matched drivers this season. Monaco was the standout case study.

But as prestigious as that race is, it pales into insignificance compared to the title battle. Capturing the ultimate glory of being crowned champion brings a different type of pressure and clearly Jaguar did not handle its overall strategy well, nor its two-to-one 'advantage' over Porsche in most of Sunday’s race.

But team principal James Barclay was insistent that he and the team were “really giving them both fair opportunities”.

“As I’ve always said, we’re not beyond the ability to say: ‘Was there something we could have done better today?’” said Barclay.

“But at the same time if I look at it, I think Mitch was maybe not in the best position at the front because he was down on energy. We’ll have to look at if that was right, if we put him in the right position.”

Barclay had a large degree of sympathy for Cassidy, saying that he was “actually in a position to win the world championship and I’m pretty convinced that, to respect Antonio [Felix da Costa] I need to see the onboard as well before I comment on this, but it looks like it was a puncture caused by Antonio”.

“Even if it’s a misjudgement, it’s incredibly sad for me, in a position where he [Cassidy] has got a bit of an energy advantage, he’s got his attacks done, he’s very close to having the upper hand at that point,” said Barclay.

“I don’t want to sound like sour grapes but if that is how it played out then I really feel for Nick because he was in prime position to get that race win and world championship.”

Further inspection of the onboard would have made it pretty clear a minor da Costa misjudgement caused Cassidy's puncture and ended his hopes through a big slice of bad luck.

In fact, Cassidy is insistent he'd have been champion without it. That's claim we'll never know the answer to.

“I'd clawed back all the energy deficit. I was happy with my car speed. I knew that they [Evans and Wehrlein] had two attack [modes] to do, so I didn't want to come together with Pascal," Cassidy told The Race.

"I just needed to stay within one second of Mitch, which I was confident of doing, because it looked like Pascal had better pace than him.

"So, ultimately, what happened with the second attack mode [coming out behind Evans and Wehrlein] put me in a dangerous position that led to me being taken out. However, if I wasn't taken out, yes, 99.9%, I probably still would have won the championship."

You can argue either way whether Cassidy would have been champion without the incident but it's undeniable Jaguar would have been far, far more likely to finally walk away with a drivers' title after years of falling short, had its strategy not gone into free fall.

And that will leave Jaguar and its star driver line-up with plenty of uncomfortable questions to stomach over the coming weeks and months.