Nick Cassidy believes Tag Heuer Porsche will be “the reference” team in Mexico at this weekend’s resumption of the FIA Formula E championship.
The Jaguar TCS Racing man arrives at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez looking to kickstart his season, after retiring in the incident that also sent reigning champion Pascal Wehrlein’s Porsche out in horrifying fashion.
The second Jaguar of Mitch Evans would go on to take victory, having started last on the grid, and Cassidy told Motorsport Week that, given he was “going to fight for the win” had he not retired, his mentality is to see the bright side from his own perspective.
“Yeah, look, I’ve just got to take a lot of positives from that, right? We were in the fight all the race,” he said.
“[It’s a] new generation of car, we were still in the fight. Just take the positives.”
Cassidy finished was third in Mexico last season, which helped set him up for a season-long title charge which saw him narrowly lose-out to Wehrlein, who won the race,
“I think, you know, on past results, I’ve struggled a little bit here, but I can make the podium last year, which gives me a bit of confidence.
“You know, Porsche are very, very good in Mexico, so I expect them to be the reference, but if we can get close and put up a fight this weekend, I’ll be pretty happy.”
Cassidy also said that despite the circuit being a permanent felicity, there is a suggestion that qualifying is less important, as is the way with a lot of similar venues in Formula E, but Cassidy disagreed, saying: “I would say the opposite. On qualifying, it’s the hardest part, but we’ll see.”
GEN3 Evo has ‘changed’ the order
The Kiwi also reflected on being the “blameless party” in the incident that ended his race in Brazil, and seeing Wehrlein’s car go halo-first into the barrier.
“At the time, I didn’t want to make any comment or review what happened,” he said. “The first priority was to make sure he was OK – it’s not nice to see any car in the wall or upside down, and as you heard over the radio, that was my first concern. I’m fully relieved that he’s OK.”
Nissan and Oliver Rowland in particular looked competitive before drive-through penalties compromised their race, suggesting that perhaps the level of competition is more open this season, but Cassidy feels the new GEN3 Evo cars have merely opened-up the opportunities for some teams to reach the front of the pack than others.
“I don’t know if it’s more open. I just think the order’s changed a little bit.
“It’s clear that Porsche and Nissan are the reference right now, but we’re working super hard to close that gap, and in São Paulo we still came away with the win and a strong performance on my side, so there’s every confidence we will get there, however it’s true the order has changed a little bit with this generation of car.”
Race one saw Formula E’s first race of the new car, the GEN3 Evo, and Cassidy praised the “exciting” new machine.
“I mean, it’s extreme. Some of the races come down to a little bit of a luck factor, which I’m not 100% sure about just yet. But only from a performance point of view, it’s fantastic, and from a story point of view for the championship to showcase its technology, it’s pretty fantastic as well.”
Just like Season 10, political issues have condemned Formula E to suffer through another two-month gap, but Cassidy says that the weeks between the debut of the Jeddah E-Prix – “Oh man, I was such a fan of Riyadh [the previous venue] and it feels a bit weird, but we’ll see how the event is” – and the return of Miami to the calendar [albeit at a new venue] will be an added tonic for the team to reconvene.
“Yeah, we’ve been looking forward to that quite a bit yet with the top two manufacturers and we’ve got quite a bit to do, but I hope come the end of that break we’ve closed the gap and be pretty strong for the rest of the season.”
