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After joining the ABB FIA Formula E Championship back in Season 3, Panasonic Jaguar Racing has spent two seasons challenging for the title. Now, with just months to go until the first race of a brand new season, the British team today revealed full details of its Season 5 challenger – the Jaguar I-Type 3 – alongside its full driver line up.
New season, new car
Season 5 of the FIA Formula E Championship sees the introduction of the radical new Gen2 car. With almost double the energy storage capacity of the Gen1 car, there's no need for a mid-race car swap. Developing the entire powertrain in-house, including the motor generator unit (MGU), silicon carbide module invertor, transmission, cooling system, suspension, motor control unit (MCU) and new powertrain control software, the I-Type 3 is capable of accelerating from 0-100 KPH in just 2.8 seconds.
“This season, it's about moving from a regular points team to a regular podium team, said James Barclay, Team Director at Panasonic Jaguar Racing.
"We believe we are the first team to develop our powertrain entirely in-house, this gives us ultimate control in terms of design and development and hope this will put us at a competitive advantage.
"The technology is moving at an incredibly fast rate, and the new Generation 2 car will be an important test bed to help develop and drive performance of our future battery electric vehicles."
Familiar faces
But it's not all change. Piloting the new I-Type 3 in Season 5 will be Panasonic Jaguar Racing drivers Nelson Piquet Jn. and Mitch Evans. With Evans finishing a respectable seventh in Season 4 and his teammate Piquet Jn finishing just two places behind in ninth, both drivers will be looking to make even more progress this season.
"Having been in the championship since day one I’ve developed as a driver with the technology and evolution of the Formula, and it’s amazing to see how fast things have changed, said former champion Nelson Piquet Jn.
"The Jaguar I-Type 3 is a new animal, with its own challenges and intricacies. The new chassis is larger and faster than our previous racecars so it will be very interesting to see how that impacts racing around the tight street circuits.”
For Evans, he'll be heading into his third season in the all-electric championship after a podium in Hong Kong and a Pole Position in Zurich last season.
“Last season was our best to date," said Evans. "The team have worked really hard to make sure the Jaguar I-Type 3 will be competitive. We want to be fighting at the front of the grid in every race. We showed signs of this last season and have higher expectations for Season 5.”
Chinese-Dutch driver Ho-Pin Tung will remain as the team's reserve driver.
Click here to find out all you need to know about Season 5 of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship.