Jaguar wants regular Formula E podiums in 2018/19

The Jaguar Racing Formula E team has set “a very clear goal” to score regular podiums across the 2018/19 season in a bid to build on its season four achievements.

Jaguar has enjoyed impressive gains since it joined the all-electric series in season three, managing more than four times the amount of points it achieved in its maiden campaign to lift itself from the bottom of the teams’ championship and up to sixth in 2017/18, as well as claiming a first pole position and podium.

Heading into season five, which marks the introduction of the all-new ‘Gen2’ car, the British manufacturer has fully developed a new powertrain in-house for the first time in its new I-TYPE 3 challenger – which also features over 800 new components.

“We’ve been very pragmatic about our journey and the next step is moving from a regular points-scoring team to a regular podium team,” Jaguar team principal James Barclay said.

“That’s what we need to be getting towards, so we are a team that’s able regularly fight and put ourselves in a position to be on the podium. That’s our very clear goal.”

Jaguar has retained its driver line-up consisting of Nelson Piquet Jr and Mitch Evans for season five, with season one champion Piquet insisting the team is still “playing catch up” compared to its rivals.

When asked by Crash.net what he feels is possible for Jaguar in season five, Piquet said: “We’re going to take a step forward. We don’t know how much the other teams are going to take forward but we’re playing catch [up] at the moment.

“I don’t know if it will take one, two, or three seasons to catch them but at the moment we are playing catch up.

“The jump from season one to two was very easy because the powertrain they had in their season one was a last-minute thing they did, so the closer you get to that 100 percent efficiency it gets harder to get close.

“That little last percentage is very hard to get. We are going to do a step forward but we don’t know what the other teams are going to do.”

Piquet believes Jaguar can compete for the teams’ championship in 2018/19 providing it can pull off its target of fighting for regular top five finishes and podiums. 

“If we have the same step again next year, it’s going to put us in a very good position,” he said.

“To fight for a championship you always need to be in the top five, then your consistency will make you win a championship.

“If we can always be fighting in the top five that will put us in contention to win the championship and that’s what we will try to do.”

“I just want to see Jaguar at the top," Evans added. "I know how hard the team has worked behind the scenes.

"We have had two years in the championship, the first year was tough for us coming in as a new team but we made a huge step last year.

"I really want to see both of us at the front and then take it to the other manufacturer’s for the championship."