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Jaguar returns to international racing in Formula E

The Jaguar name will return to International motorsport for the first time in a decade after plans for a long-term campaign in Formula E were confirmed in London on Tuesday.

Jaguar Formula E livery

Jaguar Formula E livery

Gisela Schober/Getty Images for Jaguar Land Rover

Jaguar Formula E livery
Jaguar Formula E livery
Jaguar Formula E livery

As revealed by Motorsport.com in July, Jaguar had been actively seeking to enter the all-electric championship since the beginning of this year.

After several months of negotiation, Jaguar Land Rover, in conjunction with technical partners Williams Advanced Engineering, finalised contracts earlier this month to enter the championship from the start of season three onward.

JLR's subsequent entry in to Formula E as a manufacturer will be formally acknowledged by the FIA later today.

"I am proud to announce Jaguar's return to racing with an entry into the innovative FIA Formula E championship," said Nick Rogers, group engineering director for Jaguar Land Rover.

"Electric vehicles will absolutely play a role in Jaguar Land Rover's future product portfolio and Formula E will give us a unique opportunity to further our development of electrification technologies.

"The championship will enable us to engineer and test our advanced technologies under extreme performance conditions.

"It is my belief that over the next five years we will see more changes in the automotive world than in the last three decades.

"The future is about being more connected and more sustainable; electrification and lightweight technologies are becoming more important than ever as urbanisation continues to increase.

"Formula E has recognised and reacted to these trends and the championship's exciting and pioneering approach is the perfect fit for our brand. "

Series boss Alejandro Agag added:  "We are delighted to welcome Jaguar into Formula E.

"Jaguar is a brand with a rich sporting heritage and the fact that it is returning to global motorsport with Formula E is a huge endorsement of the championship and its ability to influence the development of electric cars.

"Jaguar brings with it a passionate fan base that will drive the popularity of the championship across the world and once again shows that Formula E is the future of motorsport."

 

Timeline

The team, which is likely to be known as simply Jaguar Formula E team, will have four brand new Dallara/Spark built cars, and a development testing phase for the project will begin in the late-Spring of 2016.

The new Jaguar Formula E team is set to take delivery of four fresh Formula E chassis next year. None of the now-defunct Trulli Formula E team will be carried over for the Jaguar programme.

The attraction of Formula E to Jaguar Land Rover centres heavily on exploiting technology transfer to a new automotive electric mode that the manufacturer is planning to produce for the next decade.

The Jaguar name has a rich heritage in motorsport, having won five Le Mans 24 Hours in the 1950s with the iconic C and D-type models.

Further success came in the 1980s with the Jaguar XJ-S Touring Car model, while a fresh era of Le Mans success came in 1988 and 1990 with the XJR-9 and XJR-15 respectively.

Jaguar's foray in to Formula 1 between 2000 and 2004 netted a paltry return of results, with just two podium positions courtesy of Eddie Irvine before the team was sold to Red Bull.

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