Mitch Evans was left ruing the chance to grasp control of the Formula E title fight after finishing second to Pascal Wherlein in the first London E-Prix race.
Evans came into the race 12 points adrift of his Jaguar TCS Racing teammate Nick Cassidy, and equal with Wehrlein, who closed that gap by three points after claiming pole position for Saturday’s race. He now sits three points off Wehrlein, but feels he had the package to have done more.
“It’s disappointing,” he conceded. “I think we had the car and the pace to win today. We just didn’t execute properly. …I think the approach was wrong from our side, and the energy deficit killed me in the end, so it was as simple as that. The car was there.
“We did everything kind of right up until that point, but then, yeah, just execution, as I said, was not as good as it normally is from our side. It’s a bit of a shame.”
Expanding on his “energy deficit” comment, Evans said that it wasn’t the car’s drivetrain that lagged behind the race-winning Porsche, but rather how his team managed the race proved to be his undoing.
“In terms of how we approach the race, in terms of how you want to attack it in the first phase,” he explained. “And then the energy deficit to Pascal and Max (Guenther, who was a victory contender before retiring with a gearbox failure). “That was what made the difference.
Sunday’s season finale is slated to be 34 laps, shorter than Saturday’s originally-planned length of 37 laps (it was extended by two after a pair of safety cars), and that means an entirely different approach will be needed, with energy saving becoming less of a factor. With that in mind, he feels like a strong qualifying performance will be even more vital.
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“The race tomorrow is a bit different in terms of length, so that does change it,” he said. “It puts even more emphasis on qualifying. We just have to make sure our car’s quick over one lap again, like today, and then just just learn from today.
“If we can start toward the front tomorrow, just do a better job at executing and how we approach it, and how we optimize the strategy in the race.”
Behind the podium trio, which also included Envision Racing’s Sebastien Buemi who started the race second alongside Evans, Saturday’s race was chaotic, but Evans was pleased with the fight up front.
“I’ve not seen what happened behind, to be honest,” he said. “I had a few crunches, but it was all pretty clean, and some good battles between all three of us throughout the race. It was all really clean.
“But it’s just the nature of these tracks. It’s a difficult track to overtake on, so if you look back at all the other races, it’s, I’m sure, equal in terms of carnage. I wouldn’t say it’s unexpected.”
Evans goes into the title decider as one of only two drivers with a teammate still in the fight following Wehrlein’s Porsche counterpart Antonio Felix da Costa retiring on Saturday. With the Teams’ championship still on the line, Evans doesn’t think the overall complexion of the weekend has changed, despite the gaps between the top three decreasing.
“I don’t think [it] really changes anything,” he said. “We need both cars at the front and whoever does a better job will possibly come out on top of the Drivers’ (championship) if we can get ahead of the Porsche and Pascal.
“To wrap (the Teams’ championship) up today [would have been nice], because then we can focus purely on the Drivers’ tomorrow, but we’ve still got a really happy lead in the Teams’ [points].”