How Jaguar became Formula E teams’ champions

The team has evolved and developed immensely during those years, but there have been two notable constants throughout that period: driver Mitch Evans, and Team Principal James Barclay, who has led Jaguar’s Formula E programme since November 2015.

It’s an incredible rise that saw the team score its first points at its fourth attempt. A maiden podium came a year later with Evans, who then scored Jaguar’s first victory in 2019. The team just barely missed out on the teams’ championship in 2021, missing out to Mercedes by four points, and then again in 2023, this time to Jaguar powertrain customers Envision.

So, what did it take for the team to make that final step to championship glory in 2024? We caught up with Barclay at the Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard, just one week before the title showdown in London, to find out more about what we now know was Jaguar’s first world championship-winning campaign in Formula E.

Perhaps the first thing to note is the cars that race in Formula E have not returned to their teams’ factories since they left for round one in Mexico City back in January. It’s a factor of the championship’s sustainability push – the entire circus travels together to limit freight requirements as much as possible. So, any development that has taken place over the course of the season has been facilitated either in the simulator or with a test chassis. As we spoke during the Festival of Speed, Jaguar was carrying out some last-minute testing in Spain to prepare for the title showdown in London, but all of the developments would not be added to the race cars until they were reunited in the paddocks ahead of the E-Prix. But exactly what can the team develop over the course of a season?

Well, Barclay told us that a Formula E car is split into two areas when it comes to development. Firstly, there is the “common parts perimeter” as he called it, which encompasses areas of the cars such as the chassis, bodywork, and battery that are specification pieces used by every team. But why?

“Because those are areas where we could spend a lot of money, but they don't necessarily help grow the sport,” he explains. “And from a manufacturer point of view, they don't have that benefit.”

There are however around 1,000 parts that each team can develop to improve the performance and reliability of their cars. Things like the powertrain, the gearbox, and the suspension are all bespoke areas where the team can make a difference. But each physical component is homologated for two years by the FIA, so once a change has been made, it cannot be developed further within a 48-month period. As a result, the physical car that Jaguar raced this year would have been incredibly similar to the one that came so close to taking the title in 2023.

During the 2024 season, the biggest opportunity for the teams is the work they can do with software. “In Formula E, every race we can bring new code to the car. It’s a bit like in the past we would have been bringing a different wishbone or bringing a different dive plane in Formula 1.

“Our equivalent is software, so we can bring a new code for every race which makes cars more efficient or more drivable, and that's where a lot of the performance improvements come from throughout the year.

“You see cars gaining sometimes over a second through the course of a season because of the software updates, so the software is an incredibly powerful tool. Our space race is in software once the season starts.”

It all sounds suitably futuristic for a sport with a primary focus of looking to the future, and it further extends the push for sustainability that all of the work these teams are doing is carried out in a virtual space.

But what made Jaguar so good in 2024? There were times throughout the season where Cassidy and Evans looked to be in a different league. Remember Monaco, when the pair waltzed off on their own to perfectly choreograph a one-two finish with a delightful attack mode strategy. For the majority of the season, it was Jaguar’s superior efficiency that gave them the edge, particularly at the circuits which required peloton-style racing, as drivers desperately tried to eke out their energy to the full race distance. The Jags were always able to save more and push for longer at the end.

Barclay admitted that, while the car has also been extremely quick over a single lap from time to time, efficiency was a big focus for Jaguar in 2024.

“We have a power limit of 350 kilowatts maximum power. Therefore, we can't be more powerful, but what we can be is more efficient, and efficiency basically means you can go faster for longer. So we focused heavily there.

“That's always been a key focus for us, but you have to have the chassis. There's a combination of an efficient powertrain, a chassis that handles really well, which means you can carry good minimum corner speed, and then two drivers that can execute and use that car effectively.

“In our early years when we came back to the sport, we had a quick car at times over one lap, but we didn't have the efficiency and our view is it's got to be a total solution in all areas.”

The hard work certainly paid off for the Jaguar team in 2024 with a consistent pace that saw Cassidy and Evans take 14 podiums between them including six victories to score the highest number of points by a single team in Formula E history.

That they somehow failed to bring home both championships as Pascal Wehrlein snuck in to steal the trophy at the final moments will be tough to swallow for a while, but there’s no doubt this excellent Jaguar team will return hungrier than ever in 2025 to right that wrong.