Title-chasing Jaguar TCS Racing drivers Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans have claimed that their main competitors, Tag Heuer Porsche, will utilise the help of customer team Andretti over this weekend’s season finale in London.
Speaking to Motorsport Week, both Cassidy, who leads the championship by twelve points, and Evans, who is his joint-nearest challenger, are under the impression that their customer team, Envision Racing, have not been asked by Jaguar’s hierarchy to help them, but believe Andretti’s position has been made clear by the Porsche management.
“There certainly hasn’t been any talk with Envision about it,” said Cassidy, adding: “But we know, it’s facts, that there’s been a request from Porsche to Andretti to help. We’re under no illusions we’re racing Pascal and his army of help, that’s the way it is.”
“I’d rather focus on ourselves, I’m not expecting any help from Envision,” said Evans. “Those talks are between senior management, if they’ve been held or not. I’m expecting Andretti to help Porsche as much as they can…I kind of know for a fact they will, so that could potentially be an issue. It’s a tricky one to manage, you don’t want that help, you want to do things under your own control.”
Earlier, Porsche’s Team Principal Florian Modlinger was cagey in his response when asked by Motorsport Week if they would enlist the help of Andretti.
“When you see what targets each team has – clearly Andretti is our customer – but if you look in the standings, they have a clear target to finish P3, and regarding prize money, they have their own targets, but if there are situations coming up where help is needed from both parties, the drivers know what is key for success altogether, and we all drive with a Porsche, car, but everyone has individual targets and we have to respect them.”
