Jaguar Racing

Jaguar Racing is the name given to Jaguar Land Rover's racing interests. The Jaguar brand currently competes in Formula E under the name Jaguar TCS Racing for sponsorship reasons. It is the defending Formula E World Teams' Champion, having won the 2023–24 title.
From 2000 to 2004, Jaguar competed in Formula One. Its best finish was in the Constructors' Championship was 7th, which it achieved three times, from 2002 to 2004. The team was subsequently sold to Red Bull, which renamed the team to Red Bull Racing.
The Jaguar brand also has rich history in various forms of sportscar racing, most notably with the XJR sportscars in the FIA World Sportscar Championship and IMSA GT Championship during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
In December 2015, Jaguar announced that it would start a Formula E team, building its own chassis and powertrain. Panasonic agreed to become the team's lead sponsor, with secondary sponsorship from Lear Corporation. The team also signed Gorillaz guitarist Noodle as a team ambassador, and launched a commercial in which Noodle drives an electric open-wheeled car before getting out and saying the experience could be improved.
Jaguar made their debut in the 2016–17 season, replacing the folded Trulli GP. The team signed A1 GP champion Adam Carroll and 2012 GP3 champions Mitch Evans as its drivers. Jaguar finished 10th in the Teams' Championship, with the best result being a double points finish of 4th and 8th at the 2017 Mexico City ePrix. Carroll along with Andretti's Robin Frijns were the only two drivers to finish all 12 races of the season.
Prior to the season, Jaguar entered a multi-year partnership with GKN. A new sponsorship deal with Viessmann was also announced. In an effort to boost its chances at good results, Jaguar signed Nelson Piquet Jr., the series' inaugural Drivers' Champion. Piquet had the option to stay with his previous employer NIO, but chose not to as a performance clause allowed him to exit the team. Evans was retained to partner Piquet, who replaced Carroll. Ho-Pin Tung remained with the team for another season as a reserve driver. At the season's first event in Hong Kong, Jaguar scored points in both of the weekend's races and took their first podium in the series when Mitch Evans was moved up to third following a post race disqualification of Daniel Abt. The team used Paul di Resta and Pietro Fittipaldi for a rookie test held in Marrakesh which followed the 2018 Marrakesh ePrix. At the Zürich ePrix, Evans claimed the team's maiden pole position.
Jaguar would finish 6th in Teams' Championship, with the best result being Evans' inherited third place in the second race of the 2017 Hong Kong ePrix. The team managed three double points finishes throughout the season. Both drivers finished in top 10 of the Drivers' Championship – Evans was seventh, while Piquet ended the season at ninth place. Piquet, however, also had the most retirements out of all drivers who competed in the season – he missed the chequered flag five times.
Evans and Piquet were retained for the 2018–19 season. Ho-Pin Tung was also retained in his position. In addition to his reserve driver duty, Tung also served as a pundit and was part of the Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy broadcast team. For the 2019 rookie test (which was once again held in Marrakesh following the ePrix), the team opted to bring back Pietro Fittipaldi and pair him with Harry Tincknell. In March 2019, just after the inaugural Sanya ePrix, Piquet left the team following a string of poor results (in contrast to Evans' string of points finishes) and was replaced by former Virgin driver Alex Lynn. Evans managed to win the following race in Rome, giving Jaguar their first win – this was also the team's first actual podium finish in the series. His teammate Lynn finished 12th on his Jaguar debut. Evans' car was subsequently sent to the FIA headquarters in Geneva for checks to analyse one of the wishbones and its compliance with the wishbone/arm element sealed at the homologation. No issues were found, thus the win became officially confirmed.
Evans' point-scoring streak came to an end in a rain-soaked Paris ePrix, where he was the last driver to physically cross the finish line in sixteenth place, being a lap down after an unscheduled pit stop for a new nose. Lynn was forced to retire from a promising eleventh place after an accident with Venturi's Edoardo Mortara, effectively ending Jaguar's chances to score points in this round. As a result, this was the first race of the season where both cars failed to score points. The following race in Monaco was a success, with both cars finishing on points for the first time since the opening round in Ad Diriyah. The race also marked Lynn's first point-scoring finish for the team. The team had a strong finish to the season, with Evans picking up multiple podium finishes, which even inserted him into Drivers' Championship fight at the Swiss ePrix, after which he found himself third in the ongoing championship with 87 points. Lynn was mostly dealing with reliability issues, most notably retiring from second place in the first New York City race at the Brooklyn Street Circuit.
Despite improved form in the second half of the season, Jaguar would finish 7th in Teams' Championship with 116 points, which is down from a 6th place achieved in the previous season. Evans, however, improved his result in Drivers' Championship as he finished fifth with 105 points, only three points short from Lucas di Grassi, who finished third. Evans was also the only driver who managed to physically cross the finish line in every race of the season, even though Audi's Daniel Abt was classified in every race as well (but failed to finish in Rome as he retired in the final lap).
In June 2019, Jaguar began their season six development testings with Alex Lynn and Mitch Evans. The team also tested James Calado, a potential candidate for the second seat. On 26 September, Jaguar formally confirmed Evans as their first driver as he signed a multi-year contract with the team. This will be Evans' fourth consecutive season with Jaguar. On 2 October, Calado was confirmed as Evans' teammate. On the same day, Jaguar also unveiled the new I-Type 4 along with Castrol as its new partner, which returns to Jaguar's motorsport activities after a near 30-year absence. On 7 January 2020, it was announced that Alex Lynn was brought back to the team to become a reserve and test driver. With this move, Ho-Pin Tung, Jaguar's previous reserve driver, became the Jaguar Racing Global Ambassador while also remaining in the I-Pace eTrophy commentary team.
At the Mexico City ePrix, Evans gave Jaguar their second Formula E win while also picking up a second consecutive bonus point for being the fastest driver in group qualifying stage. Calado finished ninth, but was later disqualified for a technical infringement. On 19 February, Jaguar announced Jamie Chadwick as the first of the two selected drivers for the third annual Marrakesh rookie test. On the following day, Sacha Fenestraz was announced to join Chadwick for the rookie test. On 30 July, Jaguar announced Tom Blomqvist as its new reserve driver, after Lynn got signed to Mahindra Racing and leaving Jaguar in the process. Calado's final race for Jaguar would be the fourth Berlin race as 2020 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps prevented him from attending the final two races, in which the new reserve Blomqvist would take his place.
After an unsuccessful season finale in Berlin, Jaguar would only score 81 points in their campaign, finishing 7th in Teams' Championship once again.
On 14 July 2020, Jaguar became the first team to announce its driver lineup for the 2020–21 season after signing Sam Bird to the team. Bird would finish the ongoing 2019–20 season with Envision Virgin Racing before completing the switch. Evans continues with the team as he signed a multi-year contract prior to the 2019–20 season. In October 2020, Jaguar unveiled the development version of the I-Type 5 car, with the team only referencing to itself as Jaguar Racing, quietly splitting with the title sponsor Panasonic. On 27 November, the team held a virtual launch of the I-Type 5 along with the drivers presentation, revealing new sponsors and announcing the car numbers. In February 2021, Sacha Fenestraz returned to the team as a reserve driver, replacing Blomqvist who joined NIO 333 as a full-time driver.
The Diriyah ePrix double-header saw the team scoring two podium finishes and two retirements. In the first race, Evans finished third after successfully defending his position over René Rast. Bird retired from the race following a collision with Alex Lynn, who was later given a penalty for the incident. In the following race, Bird won his first race in the Jaguar overalls after starting from third and successfully overtaking Dragon's Sérgio Sette Câmara at the start and later the pole-sitter Robin Frijns, his former Virgin Racing teammate. The race however ended prematurely red-flagged due to Alex Lynn being involved in a huge collision with Evans, who retired in the process. He tried to check on Lynn, who was later taken to hospital. After this race, Jaguar moved to the lead in Teams' Championship for the very first time. At the Valencia ePrix double-header, the team lost its lead in Teams' Championship as it failed to score a single point after poor qualifying performances in both races due to wet conditions in their qualifying group.
In May 2021, Tom Dillmann joined the team as a second reserve driver, returning to the sport after previously competing for Venturi and NIO. On 22 July 2021, Jaguar Land Rover formally committed to Formula E for the next set of rules which are set to keep Jaguar Racing on the grid until 2026. Then on 3 August, it was announced that Evans signed another multi-year extension with the team. Before the Berlin ePrix, it was announced that Gerd Mäuser would step down from his role as a chairman after the season with Thierry Bolloré succeeding him in the role. In their most successful season to date, Jaguar Racing finished second in Teams' Championship with 177 points, having led it on two separate occasions (the second one being before the final round), with two victories scored by Bird and further six podium finishes, five of which scored by Evans who as a result scored the most podium finishes out of anyone that season.
On 2 November 2021, the team announced their latest rebranding to Jaguar TCS Racing along with confirming the unchanged driver lineup of Bird and Evans. Thierry Bolloré was also confirmed as the team's new chairman. On 17 January 2022, Norman Nato was announced as Jaguar's new reserve and simulator driver, joining Tom Dillmann and replacing Sacha Fenestraz. On 8 February 2022, it was announced that Jaguar would become powertrain suppliers for Envision Racing over the duration of the Gen3 era of Formula E which is set to start with the 2022–23 season.
After a poor start to the season, Jaguar recovered at the Rome ePrix where Evans got a double victory. Bird was also looking for a double points finish, but he was forced to retire from the second race. At the inaugural Jakarta ePrix, Evans added another win to his resume, remaining fourth in the championship, but getting closer to his title rivals that gained advantage on him after a less successful Berlin ePrix double-header.
Bolloré stepped down as Jaguar Land Rover CEO in November 2022. With no direct replacement announced for Jaguar Racing's chairman position, Barclay would now remain the sole official authority in the team heading into the Gen3 era of Formula E.
Jaguar retained Evans and Bird for their Gen3 debut. The team changed its visual presentation, ditching teal in favor of white, while keeping black as primary colour. Also part of this change, the new I-Type 6 cars would also run asymmetric liveries. Jaguar had a troublesome season opener in Mexico City. Bird was suffering from technical issues throughout the whole weekend and had to retire early into the race. Evans, despite crashing after the first free practice due to a different unspecified problem, finished the race in eighth position. Further drama came at the inaugural Hyderabad ePrix, where Bird collided with Evans after unsuccessfully attempting an overtake on Sacha Fenestraz, taking both him and Evans out of the race.
Jaguar-powered cars were initially uncompetitive against Porsche-powered teams in race conditions (despite having a superior one-lap pace), but slowly took over, scoring several poles, podium finishes and wins since, splitting them between the factory drivers of Evans and Bird and the customer Envision Racing driver lineup of Nick Cassidy and Sébastien Buemi, who became Jaguar's biggest title rivals in the process. Jaguar lost the teams' title by 12 points to Envision; Evans secured the third in the drivers' championship.
On 12 January 2024, it was announced that Joel Eriksson and Tom Dillmann would both remain as test, reserve, and simulator drivers for the 2023–24 season. Meanwhile, Nick Cassidy would replace Bird to partner Evans. The team experienced their best season to date, as two wins from each of their drivers would put them on the brink of winning all three titles come the final round in London. Whilst their results would be enough to win both the teams' championship and, along with customer team Envision, the newly-formed manufacturers' trophy, a puncture for Cassidy and a late attack mode miss from Evans meant that Jaguar missed out on the drivers' title to Pascal Wehrlein, with Evans and Cassidy ending up second and third respectively.
In June 1999, Jaguar's then-parent company, American automaker Ford, purchased Jackie Stewart's Stewart Grand Prix Formula One team for a price variously reported at £65 or £100 million. Ford was already a minority investor in the Stewart outfit and supplied the team with engines through its then-subsidiary Cosworth. It renamed the team to Jaguar in September 1999. Ford announced a $400 million project to build a unified facility in Silverstone for its engine and constructor operations, but these plans never came to fruition, and Jaguar remained in Milton Keynes.
The team operated for five seasons, from 2000 to 2004. During this period, The Times estimated that Ford spent £500 million on the team and incurred significant operating losses. Due to Jaguar's combination of works-team backing and limited success, it was deemed a major flop. Looking back in 2023, Motor Sport wrote that Jaguar was "one of the most high-profile failures in F1," with "a revolving door of management that made Jaguar Racing look like an employment bureau rather than a slick F1 team."
At the end of the 2004 season, Ford sold the team to Red Bull for £1. The Austrian company concurrently pledged to invest at least £200 million in the team over three years. Ford also sold Cosworth to the owners of Champ Car, thus effecting its complete operational withdrawal from F1 after 35 years as a competitor and/or engine supplier. Elements within the Ford organisation made a last-ditch attempt to save the team by rebranding it from Jaguar to Ford, but company leadership in Detroit went ahead with the sale; it was estimated that Ford was losing $50 million/year on F1. Formula One Group CEO Bernie Ecclestone regretted the loss but emphasized that Jaguar as a whole was in poor shape, explaining that with the parent company "closing a factory ... it would have been a bit cheeky to keep the Formula One factory going in those circumstances."
For 2000, Jaguar retained Stewart driver Johnny Herbert and partnered him with 1999 world championship runner-up Eddie Irvine, who reportedly received a $15m contract. However, the team fell short of Stewart's 1999 results, finishing ninth in the Constructors' Championship, with Irvine scoring all four of the team's points. The only teams Jaguar beat were Minardi and Prost, which both failed to score any points. The highlight of the year was Irvine's fourth-place finish at Monaco.
Jaguar's rookie year introduced a common theme: the struggle for control between Ford headquarters in Detroit and Jaguar Racing's headquarters in Milton Keynes. The team was overseen by Wolfgang Reitzle, the head of Ford's Premier Automotive Group, whose remit included both Jaguar Racing and Ford's various luxury marques. Although Jackie Stewart initially stayed on as chairman and CEO, he stepped down in January 2000. Neil Ressler, Ford's chief technical officer, was appointed chairman and interim CEO in January, and became full-time CEO in May. Paul Stewart remained as COO but stepped down in the middle of the season due to colon cancer.
Ressler planned to fill the CEO role until Ford procured the services of Ferrari's Ross Brawn, a veteran of Jaguar's title-winning sports car operation, but this did not happen. In the meantime, he clashed with some of Jaguar's UK-based personnel. It was reported that during the Malaysian Grand Prix, Ressler nearly came to blows with technical director Gary Anderson, a holdover from Stewart GP who resented the Ford bureaucracy's intrusion on his turf. Anderson also complained that the England-based team was forced to use a wind tunnel in California (albeit the same wind tunnel that Stewart had previously used) and that Cosworth got more attention than Jaguar from Ford leadership in Detroit.
For 2001, Jaguar retained Irvine and replaced Herbert with Luciano Burti, who was himself replaced by Pedro de la Rosa after four races. Irvine scored the team's first podium in Monaco, finishing third. This allowed Jaguar to finish eighth in the Constructors' Championship, with nine points, including four points-scoring performances.
The year was marked by continued management turmoil. In September 2000, Ressler appointed three-time CART champion Bobby Rahal as team principal for 2001. Ressler then stepped down as CEO before the season began. As part of a broader management shakeup, Ford created a "Ford Premier Performance Division" to oversee Jaguar and its other racing operations. Reitzle was named chairman and three-time Drivers' Champion Niki Lauda was named CEO, with a reported salary of $3 million/year. However, following financial turmoil at Jaguar, Ford redirected its efforts towards auto production and capped the racing team's budget at $150 million, of which $50 million went to the engine department.
Rahal recruited McLaren's former technical director Adrian Newey, but although Newey reportedly signed a contract with Jaguar, he refused to join the team, citing its fractured internal politics. Rahal also signed decorated chassis designer Steve Nichols. However, following Ressler's exit, Reitzle assumed overall control of the team and gave Lauda more authority. Following the Hungarian Grand Prix, Lauda ousted Rahal and appointed himself team principal.
At the end of the 2001 season, Ford moved Guenther Steiner from its rally team to serve as Jaguar's managing director. John Allison took responsibility for the commercial and administrative aspects of the business. More broadly, the team's budget and performance came under closer scrutiny after Ford CEO Jacques Nasser retired and was replaced by William Clay Ford Jr. Although Nasser was enthusiastic about Formula One, Ford Jr. questioned why the company was spending so much money on a team that did not bear the Ford name.
Jaguar retained the Irvine-de la Rosa pairing for 2002 and were rewarded with another improvement in the Constructors' Championship, finishing seventh, scoring eight points, all from Irvine. Irvine recorded another podium at Monza, which would ultimately be Jaguar's last podium in Formula One. However, the team was held back by a disappointing car; at one point it was reported that Lauda was considering reusing the 2001 season's car. Lauda blamed the R3's poor aerodynamics on the lack of an on-site wind tunnel. Nichols left the team after the R3 performed badly in pre-season testing. Mark Gillan was appointed as technical director.
In mid-2002, Wolfgang Reitzle left Ford as part of a broader corporate reorganisation, declining an offer to take a reshaped role that did not include motorsports. At the end of the season, Ford stripped Lauda of the team principal role and laid off over 60 personnel. Although Lauda was asked to stay in an advisory role, he opted to leave the company, and Ford paid him to sit out the 2003 season.
To replace Lauda and Steiner, the team hired a new triumvirate of Ford overseer Tony Purnell (replacing Lauda at the Premier Performance Division), managing director David Pitchforth, and sporting and commercial director John Hogan. No team principal was appointed. Hogan complained that he was being "pulled all over the place because Ford in America wanted control," and left the team at the end of the season. He added that Ford continued to underinvest in the team, and questioned the wisdom of "run[ning] an F1 team on £150m a season." However, the team benefited from earlier investments in facility upgrades, including the long-awaited wind tunnel.
For 2003, Irvine and de la Rosa were replaced by Mark Webber and Antônio Pizzonia, a decision made by Lauda shortly before his ouster. In addition, Pizzonia was replaced in mid-season by Justin Wilson. The team jumped from eight to 18 points in the Constructors' Championship, but remained in seventh place. Webber scored seven times in seventeen races, and Wilson scored an additional point at Indianapolis.
2004 marked Jaguar's final season in Formula One. The team retained Webber and replaced Wilson with Austrian driver Christian Klien, who reportedly brought in over £10m in sponsorship money from Thai-Austrian energy drink manufacturer Red Bull. Although the team took a step back on track, scoring only ten points in eighteen races, it nonetheless finished seventh in the Constructors' Championship for a third straight year. At the end of the year, Red Bull bought the team and renamed it to Red Bull Racing.
The team earned an odd form of publicity when two of its engineers adopted an inflatable donkey (acquired following a give-away on a soda can) from the movie Shrek as an impromptu team mascot. After the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix, Bernie Ecclestone, Max Mosley, much of the sport's management, and every driver except Michael Schumacher signed the donkey, which the engineers promised to auction off for charity.
In addition, the team set a $300,000 diamond into the nose cone of each car to promote the film Ocean's Twelve during the 2004 Monaco Grand Prix. However, Klien crashed on the first lap, and his car's diamond was never found.
The Jaguar XJR sportscars were a series of sports prototypes that competed in the World Sportscar Championship and IMSA GT Championship between 1984 and 1993. These cars enjoyed high success, with some of the highlights being:
In 2009, RSR Racing revealed the new Jaguar XKR GT2 car, which the team was to enter the American Le Mans Series' GT2 class with.
RSR first raced the XKR in the 2010 American Le Mans Series with Paul Gentilozzi, Ryan Dalziel and Marc Goossens. They finished last in the GT class with five points. They also visited that year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, but retired early into the race. The team then entered another season in the American Le Mans Series with Cristiano da Matta and Bruno Junqueira, this time finishing ninth (second last) with six points.
The first GT3 iteration of the XKR was developed by Apex Motorsport, which ran these cars in the FIA GT3 European Championship (from 2007 to 2009).
Jaguar then had a fairly long run in the Blancpain GT Series, with the Switzerland-based racing outfit Emil Frey Racing fielding multiple Jaguar XK Emil Frey G3 cars. Those were an in-house development by Emil Frey Racing, with approval from Jaguar, that conformed to full FIA GT3 regulations. The car debuted in the 2012 Blancpain Endurance Series and finished its run in the 2018 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup. For its farewell season, the car was moved to the Silver Cup and won the championship with the lineup of Alex Fontana, Mikaël Grenier and Adrian Zaugg. It was also third overall in the Endurance Cup Team Rankings. In the previous seasons, the XKRs were run exclusively in the Pro Cup, with the team fielding two cars instead of one in the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
A new entry to the British GT Championship, named Invictus Games Racing and financed by James Holder, fielded two new Jaguar cars for the 2018 season. Despite conforming to standard GT4 regulations, the Jaguar F-Type SVR GT4 was run exclusively in British GT and was not expected to be made available to other customers. The GT4 iteration was developed by Jaguar Land Rover's SVO division.
Invictus ran two cars in the 2018 season, both in Pro-Am class. Jason Wolfe and Matthew George were the full-time professional drivers of these cars, while Steve McCulley, Paul Vice, Ben Norfolk and Basil Rawlinson have been selected as the amateur drivers. The entry was reduced to a single car for the 2019 season, with George, McCulley and Vice staying in the team.
The Invictus team disbanded prior to the 2020 season. In February 2020, both cars along with spare parts were auctioned via Silverstone Auctions and eventually sold for £213,750.
For the 2018–19 season, Jaguar Racing launched a support series for Formula E, dubbed the Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY. The series operated an 'Arrive and Drive' package for up to 20 drivers at each race, including a different VIP driver at every venue. The series would be cancelled after the 2019–20 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
(key) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)
(key) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)
(key) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)