Second all-Jaguar FE collision "hurts" as Bird again takes out Evans

Evans and Bird were running in eighth and ninth positions with just three laps to go in Indonesia when Bird misjudged his braking into Turn 1, hitting the back of the Kiwi’s car.

The contact between the Jaguars was gentle but it was enough to pitch Evans into a spin and into the barriers, putting him out of the race.

Bird survived the contact and looked set to salvage some points for Jaguar until a separate collision with McLaren’s Rene Rast dropped him to 21st and last among the classified finishers.

It marked the second time in 2023 that the two Jaguars have come to blows, with Bird having similarly crashed into Evans while they battled for victory in Hyderabad in February.

Speaking to Autosport after the incident, Evans admitted to some frustration on a day title rival Pascal Wehrlein bounced back from a difficult run of races to score his first win in over four months. 

“I don't really want to comment too much on it,” he said.

“I was having a tough race anyway, I was struggling a lot with the pace. The car was very difficult to drive. 

“It was an unfortunate accident. We have got a lot of work to do to have a good day tomorrow as a team. Obviously, the accident was unfortunate. 

“Unfortunately, it’s the second time this year so it hurts. We missed a few points which is not good. The main thing is to try and make the cars fast for tomorrow.”

Sam Bird, Jaguar Racing

Photo by: Andreas Beil

Bird didn’t have much to say about the crash, only telling Autosport that “I made a mistake” and that he wasn't trying to make a move on Evans.

Asked how the incident was different to their more high-profile collision in Hyderabad, which cost the team as much as 43 points, he said: “One was in India and one was in Indonesia.”

Jaguar team boss James Barclay revealed that the team will look at the incident between its two drivers in Jakarta “internally”, having conceded further ground to Porsche and Envision in the championship standings.

“It wasn't an ideal end to the race,” he said. “We will manage that here internally.

“But the positive side is that the car pace is good to be able to get us in the points. But we have sadly let a few points go away today.

“They have [spoken to each other]. We managed that straight away.

“We just need to focus forward now, there's no point looking back. But for sure we need to ensure that we don't let that happen.”

Evans has dropped to fifth in the standings after his third non-score of 2023, 34 points off Envision's championship leader Nick Cassidy.

Jaguar remains third in the teams’ championship, but its deficit to Porsche has grown to 42 points following Wehrlein’s first victory since the Diriyah double header in February.