How Cassidy earned 'Big Cat' bragging rights in tight Monaco duel

The visit to Monaco marked the beginning to the second half of the 2023 Formula E campaign and firmly signified the emergence of new title favourites in this year’s championship battle. Nick Cassidy and Envision Racing arrived in the Principality on a high having taken victory last time out in Berlin, but their success in Monte Carlo was even sweeter and has launched both into the lead of the drivers’ and teams’ championships.

Cassidy’s maiden success in Monaco was the culmination of a remarkable turnaround over the course of the day. The Kiwi had struggled in both of Saturday morning’s practice sessions, finishing as the second-slowest runner in each and complaining of a vibration under braking. Changes were made ahead of qualifying and, while there was a significant improvement in performance, Cassidy missed out on a duel spot – a poor final sector on his fastest attempt proving pivotal and which he blamed on being held up by the Maserati MSG of Maximilian Guenther.

It left him ninth on the grid but, as fellow countryman Mitch Evans had claimed ahead of the event, qualifying would have “zero” impact on the race due to the frenetic pack racing that has come to a define the new-for-2023 Gen3 era. While Evans’ prediction would ultimately prove to be correct, there was notably less shuffling of positions at the head of the field than in Berlin and that ultimately proved to be the deciding factor in Cassidy’s victory.

An aggressive opening lap moved him into seventh, which became sixth with a pass around the outside of Evans into the Loews Hairpin on lap five – just the first of several overtakes between the race’s two protagonists. Moves on Dan Ticktum (around the outside at Rascasse) and Norman Nato (on the inside at Sainte Devote) quickly followed. When early race leaders Jake Hughes and Sacha Fenestraz took their first Attack Mode activations Cassidy hit the front for the first time as early as lap eight of 29.

It quickly became apparent that track position was of far greater importance than at any other venue so far this season, the narrow confines of the Monte Carlo circuit ensuring that while there were passing opportunities, these were limited. Even so, there remained an incentive to save energy in the slipstream and, as has been the case at previous rounds this year, most leading drivers activated both Attack Modes in the opening laps to drop back from leading.

Having used both activations by lap 13, Cassidy had cycled down to second behind Evans and when the Jaguar driver activated his final extra burst of power Cassidy found himself back at the front. With three minutes of extra boost, Evans – who had started sixth after losing out to Nissan’s Nato in his quarter-final qualifying duel – moved back into second around the outside of Jake Dennis into the Nouvelle Chicane. Still with extra power, he then immediately attacked his fellow countryman into Sainte Devote to take the lead just past the halfway point – the Jaguar powertrain in the hands of Evans and Cassidy once again proving to be the class of the field.

Evans and Cassidy each took turns at leading before the decisive final pass from the latter which caught Evans unawares

Photo by: Andreas Beil

Two laps later Cassidy moved back to the front also into Sainte Devote with an overtake Evans “wasn’t expecting” and it proved to be the pivotal point of the race. Cassidy had already demonstrated the efficiency of his energy management when he won last time out in Berlin after impressively leading for the final 16 laps. While he had fractionally less power remaining than Evans at this point in the race, it became clear that Cassidy had taken a decisive lead.

Realising the importance of Cassidy’s overtake, Evans’s race engineer gave the call to “let’s go” on lap 21 but less than a lap later that charge was brought to an abrupt halt by the first of two safety cars. The race essentially became a five-lap shootout once the caution period ended, as the energy drivers had saved behind the safety car and no extra laps being applied meant that power saving became irrelevant.

Despite pressuring Cassidy immediately at the restart, Evans – who had been suffering from understeer due to a damaged front-wing after contact with Ticktum into Sainte Devote earlier on – was unable to find a way through with the pace significantly raised. A second safety car after Nico Muller’s Abt was tipped into the barriers at Sainte Devote on the penultimate lap meant the race ended under caution and ensured impressive back-to-back wins for Cassidy and Envision.

"I think if I could have kept him behind for a couple of laps after that it would have been a different story" Mitch Evans

“It’s a massive moment for me,” said Cassidy, who now holds a 20-point lead in the championship standings. “Mitch and Jake [Dennis], these guys were so fast, it was a tough, tough race. I still can’t believe it yet, to be honest. My first reaction was, and nothing against Berlin, but this feels amazing. Pretty damn special.”

For Evans it was once again a case of what might have been, the Kiwi having finished runner-up in the Monaco E-Prix 12 months earlier. On that occasion a last-lap pass had denied him, whereas Cassidy’s race-winning move at that point in the race even with 11 laps to run was “timed perfectly”.

“There were moments in the race where I thought it was for me today, especially when I got into the lead,” said Evans, who sits in fourth in the championship standings, 27 points adrift of Cassidy. “I thought it was maybe slightly early, but I was feeling good and I felt like I had a slight energy advantage on Nick.

“I wasn’t expecting Nick to attack me when he passed me and if I could do the race again, I would have defended harder and been more aware. I think if I could have kept him behind for a couple of laps after that it would have been a different story but that’s the way it’s gone.”

Cassidy and Evans’ pair of victories each in the past four races have signified a monumental shift in the title race as Porsche’s early dominance in the championship has all but disappeared. The German manufacturer endured a torrid weekend in which Pascal Wehrlein and the team lost the lead in both championships.

Cassidy was quick to hail the significance of his win at the historic F1 venue that has given him the points lead

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images

The one-lap problems for Porsche were once again on display in Monte Carlo as both Wehrlein and Antonio Felix da Costa failed to make it through into the qualifying duels, lining up 12th and 19th respectively. While qualifying has generally been a weak point of late for the team, its race pace has allowed both drivers to make progress, but that narrative changed dramatically in Monaco.

Wehrlein, who entered the event four points ahead of Cassidy, failed to make in-roads into the top 10 and finished outside the points on the road, before a five-second penalty for Sam Bird elevated him to 10th. It marks six races in succession where Wehrlein has failed to finish on the podium, his two wins in Diriyah very much a distant memory at this point.

“I was not really happy with the balance in the race,” said the German after dropping to second in the standings. “I made a bit of progress in the beginning but then taking the Attack Modes we lost a lot of positions again, both times we lost positions. It was just a difficult race to be honest. The last few rounds haven’t been great, definitely others did a very good job and we need to make a step forward, that’s clear.”

Da Costa fared no better, the 2021 Monaco winner suffering a puncture in the second half of the race, with the necessary pitstop confining him to 15th at the flag.

Some hope to Porsche is that in the hands of customer team Andretti Autosport, its powertrain is capable of still matching Jaguar and Envision. This was demonstrated to good effect by Dennis as the Briton completed the podium having remained within striking distance of both Cassidy and Evans. It signifies two podiums on the bounce for Dennis after a rough patch of form and elevates him to third in the standings, 25 points behind Cassidy.

Behind the leading trio was Fenestraz, the Nissan driver having put in a measured drive after taking pole position earlier in the day before being stripped of his fastest lap having exceeded the permitted power output during his attempt. With neither Fenestraz nor Jake Hughes having registered a time, the McLaren driver's lap cancelled after he cut across the Nouvelle Chicane, the Briton was eventually handed pole due to being the first car running on the road in the session. Despite the setback, a front-row start allowed Fenestraz to lead and he occupied fourth from the halfway point of the race.

From his second pole of the season, Hughes led for the opening six laps before taking the first of his Attack Mode activations. Despite a gap of nearly two seconds developing at one stage between the Briton and the cars ahead, that margin was eventually negated and he stayed out of trouble to finish fifth, matching his best result of the season from Mexico and Saudi Arabia – the latter where he had also started on pole.

Hughes led Fenestraz early on, the pair ultimately dropping back to fifth and fourth places respectively

Photo by: Charly Lopez / Motorsport Images

Ticktum also matched his best result of the season in sixth, having featured towards the head of the field all afternoon. That included briefly taking over the lead when Cassidy activated Attack Mode. But it wasn’t an incident-free race for the NIO 333 driver after he clipped the back of Fenestraz’s Nissan into Rascasse, damaging his front-wing. With the offending bodywork rubbing against Ticktum’s tyre, Guenther attempted to overtake the faltering NIO up Beau Rivage, but whacked the barrier and came to a stop at Massenet – necessitating the first safety car on lap 22.

It ended a promising race for the Maserati MSG driver, Guenther having been fastest in FP2 and reaching the semi-final stage of qualifying after Sergio Sette Camera’s quarter-final time was deleted for going through a red light at the end of the pitlane. Team-mate Edoardo Mortara also suffered, having lost his front-wing at Loews after running into the back of Guenther. He was 11th.

Buemi, despite the win for team-mate Cassidy, failed to feature near the front of the race at any point having started down in 15th. It was a similar story for Evans’s Jaguar team-mate Bird

While Maserati MSG suffered a difficult home event, for DS Penske it was a case of what might have been. Both reigning champion Stoffel Vandoorne and Jean-Eric Vergne were stripped of their lap times in the first qualifying group due to incorrect tyre pressures, relegating both to the back of the grid. After going under the radar for most of the race and staying out of trouble, both occupied points-paying positions by the chequered flag, with Vergne seventh and Vandoorne ninth.

Splitting the pair was Envision’s Sebastien Buemi who, despite the win for team-mate Cassidy, failed to feature near the front of the race at any point having started down in 15th. It was a similar story for Evans’s Jaguar team-mate Bird, who started just 16th and struggled on the fringes of the top 10 – his charge not helped when he missed his second Attack Mode activation.

Once he finally activated it, he was challenging Abt’s Muller for 10th when he made contact attempting to overtake into Sainte Devote, leaving Muller in the wall. Bird’s actions ironically necessitated the second safety car, denying team-mate Evans the chance of passing Cassidy for the win as the race finished under caution, while Bird’s actions earned him a time penalty that dropped him to 16th and out of the points.

Formula E next heads to Jakarta for a double-header in a month’s time, giving Cassidy and Envision’s rivals some time at least to work out how to best the new championship favourites.

Evans and Cassidy are very much the championship's form men heading into the second half of the season

Photo by: Charly Lopez / Motorsport Images