Jaguar’s James Barclay: “We’ve seen some promising car performance and efficiency”

Both Mitch Evans and Sam Bird concluded pre-season testing for Season Nine of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship seemingly happy with Jaguar TCS Racing‘s Gen3 challenger the I-TYPE 6, with the British side having completed over 1,500 kilometres of running across the test.

The team were met largely by dry weather at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia, excluding on the first day of the official test (Tuesday), where typical winter weather met the all-electric series.

This week has seen Jaguar get as much of an understanding of the new era of the sport as possible, with Gen3 being a “big step forward in technology and electrification”. The peak of the team’s weak was perhaps Evans and Bird claiming first and second during the fifth testing session of the week, in regard to the new 300KW race power mode. Evans also claimed third on Wednesday during the mock-practice and qualifying sessions, suggesting that he won’t experience the same qualifying struggles that he faced in Season Eight.

Team Principal James Barclay labelled testing as a “vital process”, and admitted that the team had “seen some promising car performance and efficiency” from the I-TYPE 6 in Valencia.

“This pre-season all-teams test week marks the start of the 2023 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season. It has been good to return to Valencia and test our Jaguar I-TYPE 6 race cars along with all other teams for the first time and gauge where everyone stands from a performance perspective. The Gen3 car represents a big step forward in technology and electrification.

“Testing is always a vital process and we have a lot of learning and information from this week. With the all new Gen3 car, it’s been more important than ever to understand the car and address any issues. Importantly though we’ve seen some promising car performance and efficiency and will continue to focus on our preparations for the first race in Mexico City in January.”