The surprising Formula E statistic that nobody predicted

When Jaguar announced the signing of Nick Cassidy after the conclusion of Season 9, everyone became instantly excited by the thought that he was going to partner Mitch Evans. 

Cassidy has become a lead Formula E driver over the last couple of seasons, whilst Evans has been a driver claiming victories for several years. 

Both drivers are immensely talented and demonstrated that during the recently completed campaign, in which they both secured two victories during the title fight. 

In the races during Season 10, there was often very little to separate the two drivers from New Zealand, something the statistics from the recent season suggest. 

In the races, Evans and Cassidy ended the season at 8-8 in their head-to-head, whilst it was the former who just had the edge in the drivers' championship by a slim 16 points. Evans finished second with Cassidy in third. 

Of course, this margin would have been considerably smaller and likely the other way around, had Cassidy not retired from the season finale in London after sustaining damage following contact with Antonio Felix da Costa. 

Both Cassidy and Evans had exceptional race pace throughout the season, and impeccable energy management to ensure that their strong pace was maximised. 

Based on how strong the Jaguar duo were across the season, it should come as no shock that it was the Coventry-based team which won the teams' championship. The British manufacturer also collected the inaugural manufacturers' trophy.

The Cassidy surprise

When Cassidy was announced as Evans' team-mate, an immediate question was how the former Envision driver would deal in qualifying against him?

This is because Evans has consistently been one of the strongest drivers in qualifying for the past few seasons, whilst it was one-lap performance which tended to hurt Cassidy during Season 9 with Jaguar's customer team. 

What nobody predicted, was that Cassidy would actually defeat Evans in their qualifying head-to-head. 

The head-to-head score in qualifying come the end of the season was 9-7 in Cassidy's favour, a statistic nobody predicted. 

Interestingly, though, Evans' average starting position of 5.69 – Evans had the second best averaging qualifying spot – was an entire two places better than Cassidy's. 

Cassidy ended Season 10 with an average qualifying position of 7.88, meaning his average starting position was worse than Evans', but he actually qualified ahead of his team-mate more often.

An odd fact to understand, but the statistics clear it up. Whilst Cassidy did start nine of the 16 races ahead of Evans, Evans was typically within a couple of places of Cassidy. 

In he events when Evans out-qualified Cassidy, there was often several places between the two drivers, hurting Cassidy's average starting position.

The season-opener in Mexico City is a prime example of this, as Cassidy qualified third with Evans in fourth. Nevertheless, this was a point in the head-to-head in Cassidy's favour. 

A similar situation unfolded in Monaco, Berlin and Shanghai. It always took an extraordinary performance by Cassidy to out-qualify Evans, who was often not only in the duels but in the latter stages of the knockout section. 

In many ways, Cassidy out-qualifying Evans is one of the biggest surprises of the season, with Evans' incredible average starting position being proof of just how good over one-lap the Season 10 runner-up is.