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Jaguar signs Piquet Jr. for 2017-2018 Formula E campaign

Panasonic Jaguar Racing has signed Nelson Piquet Jr. to compete for them in the fourth season of the FIA Formula E championship.

Piquet won the all-electric series' inaugural season racing with China Racing. However in two subsequent campaigns with the NIO Formula E Team he's been unable to rediscover the same form. His last series race win was in Moscow in 2015.

The former Renault F1 driver is hoping to change all that with a move to Jaguar for the 2017-2018 season. He will be replacing Northern Ireland racer Adam Carroll, with Ho-Pin Tung remaining as the team's official reserve driver.

"It’s a great honour to join Panasonic Jaguar Racing," said Piquet on Thursday. "Jaguar has such a strong history in motorsport.

"It’s an exciting time to become part of the team," he continued. "Their commitment to electric motorsport is inspiring and I’m looking forward to working with the team."

Piquet will be driving the Jaguar I-TYPE 2. His first opportunity to get behind the wheel will be at the official pre-season test at Valencia in October. The new season itself gets underway in Hong Kong on December 2-3.

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“We are hugely excited to have Nelson on board for season four," said James Barclay, Panasonic Jaguar Racing team director.

"We are aiming to be a strong challenger on the grid, regularly competing for points.: He added, "We have taken a lot of learnings from season three.

"The team have been working extremely hard throughout the off-season, focusing on the design and development of the new Jaguar I-TYPE 2."

Piquet's team mate next season will be Mitch Evans. The New Zealand driver has been retained by the team for a second season after an impressive debut year.

"After such a great season it's fantastic to be continuing with Panasonic Jaguar Racing in season four," said Evans. "As a team, we are moving in the right direction. I can't wait for the kick-off in Hong Kong."

Evans took the team’s best points-scoring finish last year at the Julius Baer Mexico City E-Prix. He finished in fourth place, narrowly missing out on a podium position.

"Mitch was one of the outstanding rookies of the season with some great qualifying and race performances," commented Barclay.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.