WOKE RACING
The re-branding of Jaguar could create a striking and controversial contender in the upcoming Formula E championship, which begins this weekend at Sao Paulo in Brazil.
Jaguar has raced with traditional motorsport liveries since the start of its E-car program, firstly with a sparky twist on its traditional 'leaping cat' logo and more recently with black-and-white colours reflecting its commercial partners.
Now, as Jaguar goes woke, there is a – very slim – possibility its front-line racing program will reflect a similar style.
Could it even compete in British Racing Pink?
The re-branding has been the most controversial and confronting since the arrival of the Ford Edsel – a gigantic flop – in 1958.
Jaguar believes it can find new followers and new buyers with the marketing program, using such catchy taglines as "copy nothing", "create exuberant", "live vivid", "delete ordinary" and "break moulds".
It began with a video piece featuring androgenous models dressed in soft pastel colours, but no sign of a car.
Then came the car itself, the Type 00, which is a four-door, all-electric, performance coupe set for production in 2025.
Not surprisingly, Jaguar chose to reveal images of the Type 00 in Miami, USA and not its traditional home in the UK.
It's no surprise because Jaguar intends to leave its traditional buyers – older, wealthy men – behind in a reinvention intended to bring younger and trendier buyers to its brand.
It has already killed the last of its 'legacy' models, the F-Pace SUV, in the UK and admits it will have nothing to sell under the Jaguar label until 2026.
How it the coming change will affect the Formula E program is completely unknown.
Jaguar is the defending teams' champion and has already been testing its latest cars with Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy.
Evans was second in Season 10 of the E-car championship while Cassidy was runner-up the previous year.
The car has been pictured in a black-and-white camouflage colour scheme and still with the outgoing Jaguar branding and leaper logo.