Jaguar TCS Racing arrive at the Shanghai E-Prix 2026 leading both the Drivers’ and Teams’ World Championships, at a circuit that has treated them well since it joined the calendar in 2024. Mitch Evans won the inaugural Shanghai race. Nick Cassidy won there last season. António Félix da Costa built his own history at the venue before he ever wore Jaguar colours. Round 12 and Round 13 fall across Saturday 4 July and Sunday 5 July, with Jaguar’s Teams’ Championship lead sitting at 30 points over nearest rivals Porsche and six races of the season still to run. Evans leaves Sanya frustrated after contact cost him a stronger result there, but the championship lead survived it anyway. Da Costa says the team could have taken even more from that race. Shanghai is where they go to put it right, with Rowland, Mortara and Porsche all close enough behind to make the margins matter.
Key Points: Shanghai E-Prix 2026 Preview
- Jaguar TCS Racing arrive at Shanghai leading the Drivers’ Championship (Evans, 128 points) and the Teams’ Championship (220 points, 30 clear of Porsche)
- Shanghai has been a strong circuit for Jaguar since it joined the calendar in 2024: Evans won the inaugural race, Cassidy won there last season
- Evans says contact during the Sanya race cost him a stronger result, but the championship lead held regardless
- Da Costa says Jaguar “could have taken even more” from Sanya and arrives with added motivation for the double-header
- Six races remain in the 2025/26 season, starting with this Shanghai double-header, with Porsche the closest challengers in the Teams’ fight
- Both races start at 15:05 local time, Saturday 4 July and Sunday 5 July, at the 12-turn, 3.051km Shanghai International Circuit
Jaguar’s Shanghai History
Shanghai joined the Formula E calendar in 2024 and Jaguar have had the better of it since. Evans won the inaugural race that year. Da Costa, driving for a rival team at the time, took race two of that same double-header and added a third-place finish the following season. Cassidy won for Jaguar last year, his final season with the team before his move to Citroën. This is the third consecutive season Formula E has raced at Shanghai, and it’s the first time Evans and da Costa arrive there as team-mates rather than rivals.
That is the useful context for a weekend where Jaguar hold both titles on paper but arrive off the back of a Sanya round that didn’t go entirely to plan. Shanghai has already delivered wins for both drivers, just not together, and not yet for da Costa in Jaguar colours.
Evans: Contact, Composure and Still Leading
Evans doesn’t hide from what happened at Sanya. Contact cost him a result his pace deserved, and he says so plainly. It hasn’t shaken the bigger picture. Nineteen points clear of Rowland, twenty-five clear of Mortara, and the outright wins leader in Formula E history returns to a circuit where he’s already won once.
“Although we were disappointed to not come away with a strong result in Sanya given the position we were in before the contact, we know we had good pace and that we are still in a strong position in the Drivers’ and Teams’ championships. I’ve enjoyed success in Shanghai in the past, so we know we can be competitive there and hopefully we can come away from both races with a great haul of points.”
Mitch Evans, Jaguar TCS Racing
That’s a specific frustration sitting on top of real confidence, and Evans carries both into a double-header at a track that’s already worked for him once.
Da Costa’s Unfinished Business
Da Costa sits sixth in the standings on 92 points, thirty-six behind his team-mate. He’s the driver with something to prove at Shanghai specifically: a Season 10 race win there before he’d ever driven for Jaguar, a podium the year after, and now a chance to add to that record wearing the team’s colours for the first time. His read on Sanya carries more edge than Evans’s, and he’s turned it straight into motivation for Shanghai.
“The races come thick and fast at this point of the season, so I’m really looking forward to the next rounds in Shanghai. We know we could have taken even more from Sanya and that gives us added motivation heading into the Shanghai double-header. Myself and the team have scored strongly there in the past and the aim is to do so again this weekend.”
António Félix da Costa, Jaguar TCS Racing
Six races remain. Da Costa knows the gap to Evans has to start moving soon. Shanghai is the obvious place to do it.
The Gap Behind: Porsche and the Chasing Pack
Thirty points separate Jaguar and Porsche in the Teams’ Championship, and Ian James isn’t pretending that gap makes the season simple. The individual picture is tighter than that number suggests: Rowland sits second in the Drivers’ standings on 109 points for Nissan, Mortara third on 103 for Mahindra, both closer to Evans than either Porsche driver. Porsche remain the team most likely to close the Teams’ gap, built on Pascal Wehrlein and Nico Müller banking points week after week without needing standout results to do it. Wehrlein sits fourth on 101 points, Müller seventh on 89.
“We head to Shanghai at the halfway stage of the Asian leg aiming to build on the consistency we have developed across the season. We had great pace in Sanya and despite the issues both drivers encountered during the race we still came away leading the Drivers’ standings with Mitch and extending our lead in the Teams’ championship. We know how competitive this championship is and there’s so much to play for in the remaining six races, but given the way the team and both drivers have performed in Shanghai previously we’re looking forward to the double-header this weekend.”
Ian James, Jaguar TCS Racing Team Principal
Neither Rowland nor Mortara drives for Porsche. Jaguar’s closest individual threat and their nearest rival in the Teams’ fight aren’t pointing at the same cars, and six races is enough time for either version of that fight to reshape itself. Full points for every driver and team are in the Formula E 2026 championship standings.
The Circuit and the Weekend
The Shanghai International Circuit runs 3.051km across 12 turns, a Hermann Tilke design shaped, deliberately, like the Chinese character 上 (shang), meaning “up above”. It’s built for overtaking: high-speed straights meeting fast, flowing corners, a combination that has given Formula E some of its cleanest wheel-to-wheel racing across China’s first two years at the venue.
The GEN4 car made its Asia racing debut days before the race weekend, unveiled at a dedicated “FE Meets Huangpu” event on Nanjing Road, alongside a solid gold 1:18 scale model handcrafted by Lao Feng Xiang. The weekend also continues Formula E’s sustainability push, with generators running on HVO fuel repurposed from Sanya and freight moved by road and sea rather than air.
That GEN4 debut sits ahead of a bigger shift. The FIA has ratified a record-breaking calendar for the 2026/27 season, the championship’s biggest yet, opening with a Jeddah night double-header in December before a run through the Americas, Asia and an expanded European leg. Full detail on every round is in the Formula E 2027 calendar.
Session Timings: Shanghai E-Prix 2026
Shanghai, China (CST)
United Kingdom (BST)
Central Europe (CEST)
United States (Eastern)
Note
All times listed are local to the region shown. Shanghai operates on CST (UTC+8). UK is BST (UTC+1). Central Europe is CEST (UTC+2). US Eastern is EDT (UTC-4). Practice and qualifying times to be confirmed closer to the weekend. Live on talkSPORT in the UK. Full global broadcast listings via Formula E’s official Ways to Watch platform.
Coffee Corner Take
What stands out about Jaguar’s championship position right now is how comfortable it looks without a perfect weekend behind it. Sanya wasn’t clean for either driver. Contact for Evans, a result da Costa openly says should have been better, and they still leave China’s opening round with both leads standing intact. A team riding pure form doesn’t usually survive a weekend like that untouched.
Shanghai should suit them more than most circuits left on the calendar. Evans has won there. Cassidy won there last year in the same car da Costa now drives. Da Costa has his own history at the venue, just not yet in Jaguar colours. The question worth watching this weekend is whether he can finally make Shanghai his too, not just whether Jaguar win there again.
The gap over the chasing pack is still a story here: Rowland trails by nineteen, Mortara by twenty-five. Jaguar’s cushion over Porsche in the Teams’ fight sits at thirty, built against a Wehrlein and Müller pairing currently fourth and seventh in the Drivers’ table. Six races is still a lot of season for that kind of gap to survive untouched. Formula E has produced eight different winners in nine races this year. Comfortable leads here don’t tend to stay comfortable and Formula E has shown us to expect the unexpected.
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