Nick Cassidy endured a double-header to forget in Jakarta last weekend, as the Kiwi lost the lead of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship to Pascal Wehrlein.
Having entered the Jakarta E-Prix with back-to-back wins and five podiums from six races, Cassidy was expected to thrive as the championship leader; instead, he faltered. The Envision Racing driver qualified tenth on Saturday ahead of the tenth round of the championship and did well to recover to seventh, before it all went wrong on Sunday.
Cassidy again qualified tenth on Sunday, whilst his title rivals for the second race in a row were all starting towards the front. Aware that he was going to lose a huge chunk of points, Cassidy arguably pushed over the limit to get amongst the frontrunners, resulting in a costly mistake. The Kiwi clipped Wehrlein having attempted a huge divebomb, breaking the Envision driver’s front wing in the process.
He was forced to pit for repairs, dropping him to the foot of the field. Cassidy ultimately crossed the line in eighteenth, to cement a miserable weekend in Southeast Asia. Envision struggled throughout the weekend in Jakarta, with it having been a common theme amongst all the Jaguar powertrains. He admitted that Sunday’s woeful race was “overdue”, with him having made several mistakes in qualifying and in the race.
“A day like this was overdue,” Cassidy told Formula E’s world feed whilst in an ice bath after Sunday’s race.
“The track just didn’t suit us. We did a good job of analysing the data between the E-Prix. But then I made a mistake in qualifying that cost us.
Cassidy added: “I ended up in the ‘jungle,’ somehow driving along at an okay pace and then making another mistake.”
Following Jakarta, Cassidy is now third in the Drivers’ Championship and six points behind Wehrlein, ahead of the inaugural Portland E-Prix in just over two weeks. With five races remaining, Cassidy knows “nothing is lost yet”; however, he can’t afford another bad day at the office.
“There are only six points separating me from the top,” Cassidy noted.
“There are still over 125 points up for grabs in the remaining five races – nothing is lost yet!”
Cassidy’s team-mate Sébastian Buemi also struggled in Jakarta, with Envision having slipped back to second in the Constructors’ Championship as a result. TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team now lead the standings again by twenty-two points, putting further emphasis on bouncing back in Portland.
