Nick Cassidy has been one of the busiest men in racing these last few months. And he loves it that way.
The now Citroen Racing driver, who has a genuine claim to being the grandmaster of the Gen3 rules era (with 10 victories and a championship finishing record that reads second-third-second), is keen to continue his streak to not only consolidate his reputation but also expand it before Gen3 is out.
For the last three months or so he’s been integrating into the Citroen team, quickly making the most of the close proximity (he lives approximately 800 metres from the MSG base in Monaco) to get on top of how the team works and using the in-house simulator.
Mix that in with testing the Peugeot 9X8 in COTA and Bahrain, spending time at the Stellantis Motorsport base south of Paris and then readying himself for a forthcoming Asian Le Mans Series campaign (with Inter Europol Competition) a week after this weekend’s Sao Paulo opener - and Cassidy’s dual programme future is already active.
That dual programme element though, says Cassidy, wasn’t the whole motivation for moving from Jaguar to Stellantis, a move he signed up for way back in March.
“I wouldn't do it purely for a dual programme,” he told The Race.
“I want to be world champion [in Formula E]. I feel like I've still got a lot to give and I'm still getting better and better, and the more I look at the Gen4 ruleset and understand what's coming for the future, I think that experience from Gen3 is still going to be quite key.
“Knowledge of software systems and how your team operates is still going to be quite key, so that puts a lot of importance on developing this year’s car. It's kind of no secret but ever since the start of August I've been probably the busiest I've ever been in my career, in preparing for this last season of Gen3.”
One trait that Cassidy has shown in his racing is also mirrored in his off-track dealings. Being canny and astute comes with the Cassidy territory.
Around this time last year, he started looking at the resources Stellantis had in two world championships – Formula E and FIA WEC – and liked what he saw. The advancement in what is available in a manufacturer’s perimeter of components in Gen4 will be right up Stellantis’ street.
As an example, the (active) differential off the front powertrain is a set-up well-known to Peugeot TotalEnergies. The sharing of this knowledge will undoubtedly be a leg up for Citroen Racing come Gen4 because Stellantis is now the only manufacturer doing Formula E and WEC, which are the only two series in the world where an active diff is used.
Cassidy wasn’t short of offers either. Jaguar had one on the table for him. There was also significant interest from Porsche, too.
But he chose Stellantis and although it was very early days, with little in the way of meaningful running achieved, Stellantis was clearly the most prepared for the Gen4 test at Monteblanco last month.
For the here and now Cassidy is showing signs of a driver who is getting more and more confident that he could add to those 10 E-Prix wins already ahead of Gen4. Because while Gen4 is the bigger picture, the thrust of Cassidy’s work since August has been all about the last season of Gen3 Evo.
“I’m very motivated, but still have a lot to learn, a lot to develop, yet I’m fully aware of where we're coming from last season,” he says.
“I felt in Valencia we were kind of in the game. And, you know, with the work done post-Valencia and now coming to Sao Paulo, if everything comes online as planned - and as it seems to be to be going - I think there's no doubt that I should have opportunities this year.
“In terms of what those opportunities look like and whether they are race wins, whether the podiums, whether that's fighting for a championship, it's unknown. But I'm optimistic that the work done this year carries forward to the future as well.”
Moving on from Jaguar
It’s fairly clear that Cassidy’s move to Stellantis from Jaguar didn’t go down well at the Big Cat’s Kidlington base earlier this year.
It knew it had lost a key asset and it's fair to say that there was surprise and then a bit of initial frostiness from some senior management when they were made aware of the move.
But that thawed at a similar time and rate as to Jaguar’s resurgence on track, with an improvement on the reliability and subsequently results from the Tokyo E-Prix onward.
“I did have a conversation with James Barclay and Gary Ekerold at the time, when I let them know kind of I was moving on and what the future was going to be,” says Cassidy.
“And I said, 'look, my goal is to go out in this championship [with Jaguar] and make me question this [move]'.
“I'd like to think, in a way, that that is true - as I think we had a good end of the year.”
A sensational four wins in six races made for a smash-and-grab number on his competitors to claim the runners-up spot. But it wasn’t enough to make him rue his decision.
“At the same time, looking back at the season, and Berlin, Jakarta, we didn't really have the fastest car,” he says.
“We weren't as competitive as Mahindra or Porsche, the guys at the front, but we made good use of all the tools that we had, whether it was a peloton race, whether it was in the wet with strategy.
“Then we went to London, which is a track where, historically, Jaguar has always been fantastic and we could win that one on pace.”
It remains to be seen if Cassidy can do similar things this season.
Winning isn’t expected right now. But the MSG element of the operation has been running on nothing but fumes for the past couple of seasons - and it still managed to win races. That won’t be at the forefront of Cassidy’s mind, but it could be a nice subconscious weapon the organisation can use as an accelerant for its new era with Citroen for a perfect Gen4 springboard.
