Nick Cassidy said he and Antonio Felix da Costa “just cried together” after their collision on the Formula E season finale in London which resulted within the Jaguar driver losing his title.
Da Costa's Porsche team-mate Pascal Wehrlein won this 12 months's Formula E world drivers' title. The German, Cassidy and Jaguar co-driver Mitch Evans entered Sunday's London E-Prix with just 4 points.
Cassidy began from pole position and was running third in the center a part of the race, but was in an incredible position to get back to the front as he activated attack mode on each occasions, in comparison with Evans and Wehrlein who were leading.
However, his title aspirations were dashed when 2019-20 Formula E champion da Costa hit the appropriate rear tyre of Cassidy’s automobile, causing a puncture and ultimately his retirement from the race.
“He is [da Costa] great friend, he's a world champion, I'm not,” Cassidy told Motorsport.com.
“We just cried together. He cost me the world championship, but it wasn't intentional, I know that, it was just a mistake on his part. Big consequences for me.”
Da Costa began from tenth position and moved to the front of the grid, trying to help Wehrlein fight for the championship.
Nick Cassidy, Jaguar TCS Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 6, withdraws automobile
Photo: Alastair Staley / Motorsports images
Running fifth behind Nissan's Oliver Rowland, who eventually won the race ahead of Wehrlein, da Costa attempted to pass the Briton on the inside Turn 16 before catching a helpless Cassidy on the apex.
After the race, each drivers might be seen on TV embracing one another, with da Costa apologising for his role in deciding the Drivers' Championship in such a fashion.
“I feel terrible because I'm happy to be Pascal's partner in the Attack Modes and influence the result in that way, but never like this,” da Costa told Motorsport.com.
“It's a terrible feeling, not only due to act itself, but in addition due to the implications it had on him. [Cassidy] because he had each attack modes [done]it just looked great to him.
“I can only apologise profusely to him, his family and your entire team.
“It was a small gesture that was enough to end in disaster for him, and I'm really, really sorry about that.”
Da Costa received a five-second penalty for the collision, which dropped the Portuguese from fifth to thirteenth in the ultimate classification.
This had a major impact on the brand new 2024 Manufacturers’ Championship and saw Jaguar take the title, beating Porsche by 4 points and simply securing the Teams’ Championship by 36 points.
