Former Mercedes and McLaren Formula E boss Ian James has been announced as the successor to James Barclay at Jaguar.
Barclay had been Jaguar team principal since its formation in 2016, but left his position in August to head up the new McLaren endurance programme.
James will take up his position on October 1.
The 47-year-old spent much of last season attempting to save the McLaren team via a deal that initially looked to include the Stellantis brand Citroen. But a combination of political manoeuvrings on both the Stellantis side and via Formula E Operations' acquisition of the Maserati MSG licence scuppered the deal at a relatively late stage.
That meant the McLaren team was closed, and its assets were disbanded and its staff let go throughout August and September. James is believed to have formally accepted the offer to succeed Barclay shortly after the end of the last Formula E campaign.
James will take over a Jaguar team that will go into its 10th Formula E season as one of the favourites for titles after a strong end to the 2024-25 season. It notched up the most wins for a single manufacturer - seven - with four for Nick Cassidy, two for Mitch Evans, and a single success for customer team Envision Racing after Sebastien Buemi won at Monaco.
The to do list
One of James's first jobs will be to complete a deal for Jaguar to supply a customer team in the Gen4 era that begins at the end of next year. Envision is believed to have a very strong possibility of remaining onboard for the next ruleset.
This will be a crucial part of Jaguar attempting to reclaim the manufacturers' crown. It won the first one of its kind in 2024, but it was not an official FIA-recognised title, and the first authentic championship for manufacturers was taken by Porsche this year.
Beyond that, James will preside over a team that finds itself in something of a crossroads moment. Jaguar will soon announce a new driver to partner Mitch Evans at the team; the overwhelming expectation is that Antonio Felix da Costa will take the berth vacated by Nick Cassidy, who was recently confirmed at the new-look Citroen Racing squad that morphed from Maserati MSG.
Should da Costa be confirmed at Jaguar, James's presence will be central to a smooth blend-in for the notoriously heart-on-sleeve driver and his integration into a team that is still recalibrating from Phil Charles's departure as technical director in late 2023.
The Race revealed in July that former Nissan technical talisman Theophile Gouzin is set to join at the end of 2025 and head up Jaguar's engineering department. It's yet to be confirmed, but this will also be an important integration for the team as it heads into the Gen4 development period after initial group testing takes place later this year.
But the overarching aspect of intrigue in James joining Jaguar is that personally he is believed to have hankered after managing a manufacturer again for the first time since Mercedes EQ's exit in the summer of 2022.
The McLaren team was well-built and it was run strongly but its relative lack of big headline results was ultimately down to what had been a manufacturer entry being forced into a customer-shaped hole (with Nissan) when Mercedes left.
James is now back in a big-manufacturer environment, one in which last time he presided over almost-unrivalled success.
