The upcoming 2024-25 campaign of the all-electric motor racing series Formula E will be the competition’s 11th, and will coincide with the series’ upgraded “Gen3” ruleset, which will introduce new higher spec car chassis package to the competition in an attempt to make the cars faster and more powerful.
Going into the 11th season as defending World Teams’ Champion is the Jaguar TCS Racing team. In the 2023-24 campaign the team’s two drivers, Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy, respectively, finished second and third in the drivers’ championship standings.
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Though the pair were narrowly pipped by Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein on the final race weekend, the 202-21 July London ePrix, Jaguar TCS Racing’s strong performances throughout the year built both a record title-winning car, and a strong foundation for the coming campaign.
Like all racing, from Formula E through to the elite Formula 1 series, this would more than likely not have been possible without the aid of the team’s roster of sponsors.
Jaguar Land Rover, the iconic UK car brand, operates the team in collaboration with Indian tech company Tata Consultancy Services.
Unlike many of its competitors, Jaguar TCS boasts few, if any, prominent commercial brands as sponsors, especially when compared to the likes of rivals Porsche and McLaren, which are title sponsored by watch brand Tag Heuer and Arabian city project Neom respectively.
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By GlobalDataAmong Jaguar TCS’ most prominent partners are semiconductor manufacturer Wolfspeed, performance sports apparel business Reflo, oil and fluid brand Castrol, software company OpenText, and materials science partner Dow.
The racing team’s sponsorship strategy is actually is one that prioritizes all round technical benefit to the team, rather than putting pure commercial interests first.
James Barclay, Jaguar TCS Racing’s team principal, revealed exactly why such companies were selectively targeted as partners for the team at a media day ahead of the London ePrix, explaining to Sportcal (GlobalData Sport): “Brand fit is really important for us. So, we're definitely not putting 60 to 100 logos everywhere [on the car] just for the cash. We like to have an alignment with ourselves [and] our brand [Jaguar].
“We have an incredible brand and incredible history. We employ 40,000 People at Jaguar Land Rover. This team is an amazing platform to promote everything we do, and therefore the fit should be [right] as well.”
While Barclay did concede that the time will come when Jaguar TCS Racing will seek out more commercially focused sponsors, a fact that comes with the territory of being a championship-winning team, it does not detract from their focus, which remains clearly on purposeful partnerships geared toward on-track performance.
“We as a team, really value our partners and having specific partners for specific sectors is really key.”
“You have partners which are absolutely intrinsic to our performance, helping us go faster, and then for me is through partnership growth is where you really are working together to improve the performance of the team, and that's absolutely what we have at the moment.”
This works in tandem with the growth of Formula E, both on the track and off. New media deals internationally have come alongside advances in technology that allow the cars to drive faster, for longer, making for a far more compelling viable opportunity for prospective investors.
As Barclay puts it: “Do I think long term we could be similar to soccer and Formula One? Why not try it? I think our ingredients are incredibly compelling. Year-on-year, we see more interest from world-class brands.
“I’d like to say that in 10 years time, the revenues we make from sponsorship will be even greater than today because the sport will be bigger and that will come with more things like merchandise sales.”
Barclay concludes that Formula E’s exclusive position as the pinnacle of all-electric racing will only help to consolidate its financial position in the market as more and more brands look for purpose-driven targets for their sponsorship portfolios, a factor that will in time only make the teams better.
Motor racing and sponsorship
Michelle Taylor, head of sports sponsorship at TCS, the team’s title sponsor, can attest to the value sponsors have on sports properties, both on the track and off.
She states: “Properties need good partners and many of the partners, especially in motorsport are endemic to that space, so they can come in and [immediately] add value.
“We're working with the race team to drive innovations, look for inefficiencies and help make the car faster.”
This bond serves not just the teams, but also the sponsor brands themselves, something Taylor has seen first-hand with TCS through its Jaguar partnership.
“For us, the opportunity to partner with the right fit organizations and sponsor properties helps humanize our brand, align with our core values, and tell some really compelling stories.”
This in turn reflects back to the racing team, which is aided by TCS in its own community initiatives, with TCS creating a kids-focused educational curriculum in locations where Formula E races are held through the season, that allows them to activate around the community in these locales.
Formula E, much like the other two members of the Electric 360 partnership, is a purpose-driven enterprise, and as such necessitates its teams to undertake community focused actions.
Purpose-driven partnerships have become more and more prominent in the sporting space as of late, particularly in more environmentally friendly competitions such as Formula E.
“It's certainly a major trend in the industry. Purpose driven partnerships have been the driving factor in all our sport sponsorships. For us, it's never necessarily been about having a big logo in places.
From an outside perspective, TCS engaging heavily in sports sponsorship may seem strange given that it is purely a business-to-business enterprise, but Taylor explains that as a vehicle for driving purpose-led initiatives, there is none better.
“[TCS is] business-to-business, so most people don't immediately see our logo and say “I'm going to go to the store and purchase that”, that's just not what we're after. For us, it's really about driving purpose and whether that is promoting electric vehicle, or encouraging people to live a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle.
“Sponsorships [in motor racing] are used broadly for so many different reasons, and for us, sponsorships are to align with core values essentially right and to help drive purpose.”
Purpose, in this case, is to promote personal health and wellbeing, hence why the company is also the title sponsor of the Sydney, New York City, and perhaps most prominently London marathons.
“They both align back to us in terms of our objectives, to help further sustainability in terms of both the people and the planet from an endurance running standpoint. Obviously in endurance running health and wellness is a key driver in keeping our employees healthy and fit as well as our clients and communities where we work and live.”
A rising tide lifts all ships
TCS is entering its fourth campaign as a partner of Jaguar racing, and over that time the popularity of motor racing, particularly the elite Formula One (F1) series, has been supercharged, in particular thanks to F1’s Netflix series Drive to Survive.
Taylor says she has observed a trickle-down effect from this in the new raft of fans coming in to Formula E also.
“Certainly we've seen a lot of excitement growing. I mean, we know our fan base has been growing along with the sport and following the action as the cars have gotten faster, and the racing and takeovers and competitions have gotten more intense.
“When we signed [with Jaguar], we believed that the sport had the potential to attract a much wider audience. So we love to see that growth. We love to be part of it.”
This, she says, has only helped to professionalize the young competition, as its drivers too have become more media trained, allowing them to promote themselves and their personal journeys to fans better, a move that in turn helps them attract both more fans, and more sponsorship revenue.
In the case of Jaguar TCS Racing, this allows Evans and Cassidy to serve almost as brand ambassadors for both the team and its sponsors. The pair of drivers have appeared at TCS customer events and activations both at Formula E races and outside of them to ensure the partnership is year-round.
“It's a point of pride for us to have our mark on a championship-winning car. We also have to take advantage of the association to bring the stories and the lessons from the racetrack to our customer events, and to be able to leverage the drivers and James Barclay to tell stories and share what we're working on collectively.”
Despite this, there do remain challenges inherent with partnering a Formula E team.
Although the Formula E season is rarely ever fulfilled as it is intended – in the 11th season, for example, the scheduled Italy leg has already been cancelled – these are hurdles that TCS is well equipped to overcome, states Taylor.
“For marathons, we can be very intentional in saying we're going to come and sponsor London and New York, and we can handpick the markets of races we want to sponsor.
“With Formula E, we're tied into the team and that team is beholden to whatever the championship schedule looks like. So we don't get to pick and choose which market [we activate in], but wherever they go, we certainly make the most of and because we're a global company, we're pretty fortunate that we can activate in nearly every market.
After three years, Taylor is happy to admit that the partnership between Jaguar and TCS is still in its nascent stages, but adds that the ever-changing nature of motorsport means that there is still far more to come from the pair.
“We've been working off the track together for years on the business side, but for us, three years in on a sponsorship, it's still relatively new, so we're still unpacking this and still understanding how we can continue to contribute.
“So for us, we feel like we're still at the beginning stages. We feel like there's a lot more to come, especially as technology evolves. The stuff that we're thinking about this year wasn't even a thought two years ago. That's how quickly tech changes, so we know already that there's a lot more that's possible and we're looking forward to continuing to unpack it and do more together with the team.”
