Jaguar is driving to survive so Formula E success has real value

Sometimes it’s hard to think straight – especially while you’re hurtling around a track as a passenger in a 400bhp Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy racing car.

Yet, as I gripped the racing harness as a terrified toddler does its mother’s leg, I couldn’t help but feel like a personification of Jaguar itself – desperately holding on in an electric car industry that’s moving extraordinarily fast.

The British maker finds itself in a bit of a transitionary period; set to be relaunched later this year, Jag has slowly been killing off its line-up – including its very first EV, the I-Pace – in favour of becoming an all-electric luxury brand designed to compete with the likes of Bentley, Porsche and Maserati.

Until then, Jaguar appears to be existing in a state of purgatory, with the highly successful Formula E team acting as its only facet capable of generating positive headlines.

Over the weekend I got to witness Jag securing its first major motorsport title since 1991, beating Porsche to the Formula E Constructors’ title and only narrowly missing out on the Drivers’ trophy after a late-race failure of championship contender Mitch Evans’, Attack Mode setting – a feature that deploys an additional 67bhp for a short period.

Jag’s success isn’t simply a Brawn GP-style one-year wonder, either; Jaguar TCS Racing narrowly missed out on securing the Constructors’ championship last year, bested only by Envision Racing, which also happens to use a Jaguar powertrain.

Speak to Jag people in the pits and behind the scenes and they’ll quickly tell you how it’s such a powertrain that makes the I-Type single-seat racer a ‘true Jaguar’. You may roll your eyes (I sure did), but this sort of messaging will inevitably be salient to the brand’s reinvention; marketing executives are almost certain to pitch the Jaguar’s transition from petrol to electric as going from a fierce roar to a powerful, yet silent predator on the prowl.

Nonetheless, no matter how hard the marketing department tries, anyone can see this is going to be a tough sell – especially to Jag’s somewhat geriatric fanbase. 

However, there may be a glimmer of hope; someone at Jaguar let slip that Formula E would soon be getting its very own Drive to Survive-style Netflix series. While they tried this in the past with ‘Formula E: Unplugged’ on YouTube, it’s hard to deny the unprecedented boost in viewership Drive to Survive has recently given F1.

As the winner of this year’s Constructor’s title, Jaguar TCS Racing is likely to get a lot of time in the spotlight in a new show that has the potential to be a hit with the same younger viewers that became engrossed by Drive to Survive. Even if Formula E might not offer quite the same glitz and glamour as Formula One.

This could be Jag’s biggest chance of sustaining its relevancy while it waits for its super-luxury relaunch to catapult it into the limelight once more, after years of relative humdrum and a seeming lack of vision or direction.

If Jag can secure the hearts and minds of younger, fresher fans, its upcoming four-door electric GT could very well establish itself as one of the most desirable new cars set to arrive in the next year. The brand can only hope that its racing success and a melodramatic soap opera are enough to put it on the right path for a long-awaited resurgence.

Will you be tuning in to watch the new Formula E series? Let us know in the comments section below...