Cassidy in as Bird goes to Jaguar

Sam Bird will leave the Envision Virgin Racing Formula E team come the end of this 2019-20 season, paving the way for 2019 Super Formula champion Nick Cassidy to convert his sublime testing pace into proper points.

A nine-time E-prix winner, and the only driver to score a victory in every season of the championship, Bird has contested every one of the 63 races in FE history, all for the Virgin squad throughout its DS and Envision guises. His best effort came in 2017-18, when he finished third overall.

Former Mercedes F1 test driver Bird is as highly rated as they come in FE, but in recent seasons the Virgin team and its customer Audi powertrain have fallen down the pecking order. So, once the six races at the Tempelhof Airport in August have concluded the current campaign, the 33-year-old Briton will finally sign for Jaguar – after failing to agree terms with the team when it joined the grid in 2016.

Bird’s move to Jaguar, which lies third in the teams’ standings with lead driver Mitch Evans second in the points, looks set to end James Calado’s frontline FE career after only one season, although Calado has been approached to stay on in a test and reserve-driver role.

Bird said: “I have watched Jaguar’s growth and progress in the series… I am incredibly hungry for success and I believe that together with Mitch we can achieve great things for the team and ourselves. I want to thank Envision Virgin Racing for everything we have achieved together and wish them well for the future.”

Jaguar team director James Barclay added: “We now have two proven race winners that are capable of enabling us to challenge for both team and driver championship titles next season.”

The vacant seat at Envision Virgin Racing will be filled by Cassidy, who took part in the Marrakech rookie test for the team earlier this season (above). The Kiwi, who also counts the 2017 Super GT and 2015 Japanese F3 titles among his successes, dominated the running. Not only did he set the fastest time of the day by 0.5 seconds, but he also broke an FE record by posting the fastest ever average lap speed for the category. He is set to partner current incumbent Robin Frijns.