Mitch Evans – Syndication Server

Jaguar approach ‘wasn’t fair’ in Formula E decider – Evans

Mitch Evans doesn’t feel like he got a fair shot at the Formula E title during Sunday’s championship decider in London. Both he and Nick Cassidy went into Sunday’s second London E-Prix race with a chance at winning the title and pre-race, their …

Mitch Evans doesn’t feel like he got a fair shot at the Formula E title during Sunday’s championship decider in London.

Both he and Nick Cassidy went into Sunday’s second London E-Prix race with a chance at winning the title and pre-race, their Jaguar TCS Racing team had insisted both drivers would be free to race.

Cassidy led from pole and took his two Attack Modes early in the race, with Evans subsequently being asked to create a gap for his teammate at the front.

“Yeah, I was a bit surprised with some of the calls made in the race,” he said. “Otherwise the overall result would have been a lot different.

“I was told to stay behind Nick and let him do his Attacks, so it wasn’t fair.”

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Evans took his two Attack Modes late in the race, with Cassidy out of contention by then and eventual champion Pascal Wehrlein breathing down his neck. He missed his first Attack Mode activation, but while that was instrumental in Wehrlein getting past him, Evans said that getting it right still wouldn’t have been enough to secure the championship with energy targets close and Nissan’s Oliver Rowland getting by both in the activation zone to steal the race victory.

“Even if I finished in front of Pascal, second and third, he still would have won on countback,” Evans conceded. “I needed the win or another car between us.

“The Attack Mode is a strange one, I feel like the line was fine but … I probably wouldn’t have got Rowland because (with) the target being that high, it would have been hard to overtake and I needed another car in between us and it wasn’t going to happen.”

Despite both Evans and Cassidy missing out on an expected Drivers’ title for Jaguar, the brand still wrapped up the Teams’ and Manufacturers’ crowns, but Evans struggled to see the positives.

“It’s difficult. I guess we got the Teams’ that’s half the job done,” he said. “But the fact that neither Nick or I walk with the Drivers’ leaves a bitter taste.

Later on he added, “Maybe when I look back in a few months, I’ll potentially (see the positives). I’ve had strong years for a number of years now they’re still obviously missing a big one. So, yeah, it’s hard to see glass half full.”

Evans wanting more after coming up short in London E-Prix Race 1

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, …

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, but 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].”

Evans takes pole for first London E-Prix

Mitch Evans beat Sebastien Buemi to pole for the first race of the London E-Prix as championship leader Nick Cassidy failed to advance to the head-to-head Duels stage. Evans’ Jaguar TCS Racing teammate went for a double push at the end of the first …

Mitch Evans beat Sebastien Buemi to pole for the first race of the London E-Prix as championship leader Nick Cassidy failed to advance to the head-to-head Duels stage.

Evans’ Jaguar TCS Racing teammate went for a double push at the end of the first group session, and while two session best sectors were enough to momentarily bump him to fourth — and a position to advance — a messy final sector left him vulnerable. He failed to improve on his final flying lap, as Oliver Rowland (Nissan), Sebastien Buemi (Envision) and Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche) made late vaults up the order.

In the Duels final, Buemi had the upper hand in the first sector, but a mistake at Turn 16 cost him time, giving Evans the advantage over the final two parts of the lap. Evans’ pole time was ultimately a 1m 10.622s, just 0.069s quicker than Buemi.

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En route to the final, Evans topped the second group session ahead of Nico Mueller (Abt Cupra), Norman Nato (Andretti), and Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Penske). He defeated Vergne in the Duels quarter finals with a stunning lap that was 0.369s better than Vergne’s run. Evans then beat Nato, albeit with a lap six tenths slower than his one from the previous stage.

Buemi made the Duels for only the second time in the last 14 races, finishing second in the first group — which began in drying conditions after a brief morning shower — behind Wehrlein, with Rowland and his Envision Racing teammate Robin Frijns also advancing

In the Duels, Buemi defeated former teammate Rowland, and championship contender Pascal Wehrlein to lock himself into the Final for the first time since the season opener in Mexico.

Pole for Evans is his third of the season, matching both Vergne and Wehrlein. And with the three points that come with it, he narrowed the gap at the top of the championship to just nine points ahead of Saturday evening’s race.

Behind the front row of Evans and Buemi, Wehrlein will line up third with Nato fourth. Vergne will start fifth, ahead of Mueller, Rowland, and Robin Frijns (Envision), with Antonio Felix da Costa (Porsche) and Jake Dennis (Andretti) rounding out the top 10.

Maximilian Guenther will line up 11th, ahead of Sam Bird, Sacha Fenestraz, Nyck de Vries, and Jehan Daruvala, with Edorado Mortara, Cassidy, Dan Ticktum, Lucas di Grassi, Stoffell Vandoorne, Jake Hughes — who had a brush with the wall in the first group session, hampering his progress — and Sergio Sette Camara completing the field.

Sette Camara will start last after accumulating 30 places of grid penalties. The ERT driver got a 10-place drop after second practice for his third reprimand of the season, then got a further 20-place drop for a change of inverter ahead of qualifying.

RESULTS

Portland’s podium rebound doesn’t stop Evans seething

Mitch Evans is still seething from his Saturday penalty, despite finishing on the podium in the second race of the Portland E-Prix and closing the gap to the championship lead to just 12 points. Evans won on the road on Saturday but was hit with a …

Mitch Evans is still seething from his Saturday penalty, despite finishing on the podium in the second race of the Portland E-Prix and closing the gap to the championship lead to just 12 points.

Evans won on the road on Saturday but was hit with a 5s penalty for contact with NEOM McLaren’s Jake Hughes. His Jaguar TCS Racing team requested a review of the incident, but that was quickly thrown out. Evans then went on to finish third in Sunday’s race, but despite ending the weekend on a positive note, the events of the first race were still lingering.

“I’m still frustrated,” he said on Sunday evening. “Honestly, I think the decision yesterday was a bit of a disgrace, the end decision and doing it in the race. That one really hurts and I’m really [angry] about it to be honest. Really not happy about that; overnight, that’s not going to disappear.

“With that result I’d be leading the championship right now, so I hope the guys in that room up there realize that. I’ve made it very obvious that I’m not happy and I think we need to maybe internally discuss some of the processes that need to be done in the future, and the consistency I think is becoming really inconsistent, consistently, ironically. I’ll try and leave it there because the frustration’s still very much in my blood.”

Sunday’s result was a decent one – Evans’ third place is his fourth podium of the year and brings him within touching distance of teammate Nick Cassidy in the championship fight – but despite that, he still felt that he had more to give.

“Today I was hoping for a slightly better qualifying. Qualifying 11th wasn’t part of the plan after being quick all weekend, and it was really difficult to make progress in the race. I was hoping to get to the front earlier but I just couldn’t.

“[I] left my Attack late, which wasn’t really part of the plan, but I just couldn’t really get in the position to take it, had to really get my elbows out throughout the race. It was a tricky one, and doing the Attack so late really cooked my energy. I had a small advantage throughout the race and that disappeared and I just had to survive the last few laps to get home.”

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While Cassidy is now firmly in his crosshairs, Evans admitted, “I really feel for Nick as well,” and despite the brewing title rivalry between both, he knows defeating TAG Heuer Porsche in the Teams’ championship and beating the German manufacturer in the Manufacturers’ Trophy remain his team’s main goals as the series heads to London for the final two races of the season.

“A huge focus for us is to beat Porsche and it’s going to be a really big fight, and hopefully Antonio (Felix da Costa) stops winning so it gives us a bit of a chance, but it’s going to be a good fight,” he said. “We were quick there last year. It should be a track that suits our car, but we know that the Porsche, they’ve got a really strong package, and [da Costa] and Pascal (Wehrlein) are really performing well, so it’s going to be a big fight.”

There has been tension between Evans and Cassidy at points over the season, but Evans insisted that there will be respect between the two as they look to take the title for Jaguar.

“It will be what will be,” he said. “Whoever does a better job will come out on top. [I] just hope for a really clean fight and…looking forward to it.

“Me and him know, we’ve got so much respect for each other. Nick has had such a great season,” he added. “Maybe it’s going to be a conversation that we’ll have, or will have to have or not, but I think we understand what’s at stake and he’s the last person that I want to fight too hard with as well.

“It’s not going to be easy if we get to that situation, but it’s a situation that we may be in. It’s a good problem to have, having both drivers fighting for the championship, but we’re going to have to manage it as much as we can and hopefully either him or myself come out on top. That’ll be amazing.”

Jaguar’s right of review for Evans’ Portland penalty rejected

Jaguar TCS Racing’s right to review the decision which cost Mitch Evans victory in Saturday’s first Portland E-Prix race has been thrown out. Evans was hit with a 5s penalty after a collision with NEOM McLaren’s Jake Hughes, dropping him from first …

Jaguar TCS Racing’s right to review the decision which cost Mitch Evans victory in Saturday’s first Portland E-Prix race has been thrown out.

Evans was hit with a 5s penalty after a collision with NEOM McLaren’s Jake Hughes, dropping him from first to eighth by race’s end. The penalty came with a spin for Evans’ teammate Nick Cassidy, derailing a hugely strong race for the team where both drivers had an obvious shot at the victory.

“It was clearly a disappointing result in the grand scale of it, but we were on for a double podium in an immensely tense race where a lot of strategy came into place,” team principal James Barclay told Formula E’s broadcast on Sunday morning, before the FIA’s final decision had been made. “The team and drivers executed brilliantly, but that last bit obviously fell away for us. Nick drove 25 brilliant laps so I really feel for him; he really was so close to a phenomenal win.”

Barclay added, “It’s a hard one to judge. The consistency of the penalty is a hard one to take; I don’t think it was deserving of losing a race.

“Our view is that Mitch had a right to have a lane, Jake had rejoined from Attack Mode and Mitch, we felt, was right to be left some room, in a corner that you can run side-by-side. But that’s our perspective. The stewards…ultimately we have to respect their final decision, whatever that may be.”

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With the initial decision made in the race, the penalty couldn’t be directly appealed, but Jaguar had a right to call for a review if it could bring new evidence to the table. Explaining the situation to RACER, Barclay said, “The difference between the right of appeal and the right to review is decisions made which are applicable for a right of appeal means you can put a formal appeal against the stewards’ decision.

“A right to review means you have the option to bring new evidence that wasn’t available at the time the stewards made their decision for them to consider for review. They don’t have to; they have the option to decline it, they have the option to accept it. In a right to review, [if] the option is to accept it, they will look at the new evidence and they will reconsider whether their decision is valid based on the context of that new information.

“If it isn’t, they’ll keep their decision. If it is and it fundamentally means they review their decision to be incorrect based on that evidence provided, they will reconsider either taking the penalty away or applying a different penalty depending on the circumstance.”

The former is what happened, with an FIA stewards bulletin posted ahead of qualifying noting that “the review is unfounded” and the penalty is “upheld.”

“After the race, the Stewards received car data from the lap before and during the incident (laps 3 and 4) at the location of the incident,” read the stewards’ decision. “Team representatives from Jaguar TCS Racing presented the data trace showing speed, vertical acceleration, and throttle application.

“Upon review, the Stewards recognized that the driver of Car 9 made an effort to avoid contact with Car 5, but it is the view of the Stewards that Car 9 could have made even more of an effort to avoid contact, and as such, Decision 18 is upheld.

“The Stewards appreciate Jaguar TCS Racing for their preparation and presentation of this new, significant and relevant evidence.”

Evans leads Jaguar one-two in final Portland practice

Mitch Evans continued his strong Saturday form into the second half of the Portland E-Prix by topping Sunday morning’s practice session ahead of his Jaguar TCS Racing teammate Nick Cassidy. The session took place in cooler conditions than Saturday’s …

Mitch Evans continued his strong Saturday form into the second half of the Portland E-Prix by topping Sunday morning’s practice session ahead of his Jaguar TCS Racing teammate Nick Cassidy.

The session took place in cooler conditions than Saturday’s running, with clouds covering the track, and despite locking out the top two spots, both Jaguar drivers had moments during the session, with Evans ending up on the grass at the final corner in the final few minutes, while Cassidy straight-lined the Turn 1 chicane.

Nevertheless, with a best time of 1m 08.659, Evans’ fastest lap was 0.044s quicker than Cassidy who spun out of the lead during Saturday’s race, handing victory on the road to Evans, who ultimately lost it as well due to a penalty for a collision with Jake Hughes.

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NEOM McLaren driver Hughes, who dropped out of the lead battle early on Saturday after the collision with Evans, was third quickest ahead of the declared Saturday winner, TAG Heuer Porsche driver Antonio Felix da Costa, with Envision Racing’s Sebastien Buemi fifth.

Dan Ticktum continued to show strong pace for ERT, ending the session sixth, ahead of Andretti’s Norman Nato, Envision’s Robin Frijns, and Edoardo Mortara of Mahindra. Both Nissans of Sacha Fenestraz and Caio Collet were next up, in 10th and 11th, with Nyck de Vries 12th in the other Mahindra.

Jean-Eric Vergne was 13th for DS Penske, making him comfortably the highest-placed Stellantis driver, while Porsche-powered duo Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche) and Jake Dennis (Andretti) finished a lowly 14th and 15th, some way off their counterparts.

Sergio Sette Camara was 16th in the second ERT, ahead of Abt Cupra’s Nico Mueller, DS Penske’s Stoffel Vandoorne, Maserati MSG’s Maximilian Guenther, and McLaren driver Sam Bird, with Lucas di Grassi and Jehan Daruvala completing the field for Abt Cupra and Maserati respectively.

RESULTS

Evans takes Jaguar to Portland E-Prix pole ahead of Andretti’s Nato

Mitch Evans will start the first race of the Portland E-Prix from pole position after defeating Andretti’s Norman Nato in the Qualifying Duels final. The Jaguar TCS Racing driver’s time in the final head-to-head was 1m08.820s, 0.196s quicker than …

Mitch Evans will start the first race of the Portland E-Prix from pole position after defeating Andretti’s Norman Nato in the Qualifying Duels final.

The Jaguar TCS Racing driver’s time in the final head-to-head was 1m08.820s, 0.196s quicker than Nato who finished both practice sessions in the top two as well. He won’t start on the front row, though, with a 10 place grid penalty for accumulated driving infringement reprimands this season dropping him down the order.

Ahead of the final, Evans defeated Abt Cupra driver Lucas di Grassi and Jake Hughes, Evans having been beaten by the NEOM McLaren to the top of the first group session too.

Nato, meanwhile, saw off ERT driver Dan Ticktum – making his first Duels appearance of the year – and Envision’s Robin Frijns who lost time after a scrappy first couple of corners.

Pole, and the subsequent three points, for Evans is a massive shot in the arm for his championship ambitions, with Oliver Rowland sidelined for the weekend and both teammate Nick Cassidy and TAG Heuer Porsche driver Pascal Weherlein (currently second in the points) both missing out on the head-to-head Duels.

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Cassidy could only muster eighth in the opening session, as Hughes, Evans, Sergio Sette Camara (who later lost his spot in the head-to-heads to Edoardo Mortara after being penalized for impeding) and di Grassi all advanced.

It seemingly opened the door for Wehrlein to pounce in the second group, but he too fell, finishing fifth behind the advancing Ticktum, Antonio Felix da Costa, Frijns, and Nato.

Hughes will line up alongside Evans on the front row of the grid as a result of Nato’s penalty, with Frijns and da Costa occupying the second row. Ticktum will start fifth, ahead of Mortara, Nico Mueller, Wehrlein, Sebastien Buemi, and Jake Dennis, who completes the top 10, two spots ahead of his teammate Nato. Cassidy splits the Andretti pair in 11th, with di Grassi behind Nato in 13th.

Caio Collet continued his impressive debut weekend filling in for Rowland by outqualifying his more experienced Nissan teammate Sacha Fenetraz. He will line up 14th, with Fenestraz 16th, Jean-Eric Vergne splitting the two as the highest-placed Stellantis driver. DS Penske teammate Stoffell Vandoorne will start 17th, ahead of both Maseratis — Maximilian Guenther and Jehan Daruvala — while Sam Bird, Nyck de Vries, and the penalized Sette Camara complete the grid.

RESULTS

Evans leaves it late to pass defensive Wehrlein for Shanghai E-Prix win

Mitch Evans got by a hard defending Pascal Wehrlein on the final lap to claim victory in the first race of the Shanghai E-Prix doubleheader weekend. TAG Heuer Porsche driver Wehrlein had been in control for much of the race, but that left him with …

Mitch Evans got by a hard defending Pascal Wehrlein on the final lap to claim victory in the first race of the Shanghai E-Prix doubleheader weekend.

TAG Heuer Porsche driver Wehrlein had been in control for much of the race, but that left him with less energy and susceptible to Evans and his Jaguar TCS Racing teammate Nick Cassidy.

Cracks in Wehrlein’s lead started to show on lap 23 of 29 when he locked up at Turn 6, opening the door for Evans to get by at the next corner. Wehrlein would move back to the fore three laps later, with the pair making contact through Turns 10 and 11 and Wehrlein resorting to taking the to the grass. Evans then tried again at Turn 6 on lap 27, but Wehrlein held firm, as he did the following lap where he resisted Evans through Turns 6 to 10.

But on the final lap, Evans finally made a move stick, powering round the outside of the long sweeping first corner. Cassidy looked to follow, once again at Turn 6, but couldn’t make the move work.

Cassidy, who had a sizeable energy advantage over Evans and Wehrlein, pleaded with his team on multiple occasions to be allowed to pass Evans to challenge Wehrlein for the lead earlier in the race but was made to hold station and play rear gunner to Evans — a move that, given Evans’ win, probably cost the team a one-two finish. Cassidy was also noticeably irked by Wehrlein’s driving through the tight Turn 10-11 complex on the final lap, after the two made contact which resulted in damage to Cassidy’s front wing.

After making a poor start from the front row of the grid, where he was swamped by Wehrlein and Evans, Nissan’s Oliver Rowland rallied back to take fourth — only just missing out on the podium having been unable to capitalize on the contact between Cassidy and Wehrlein ahead of him.

Antonio Felix da Costa and Jake Dennis were fifth and sixth for Porsche and Andretti respectively after being passed by Rowland late in the race, with Dennis also setting the fastest lap. da Costa was later hit with a five-second penalty for forcing Jean-Eric Vergne off the track at Turn 12, demoting him to a final classification of 19th and giving Dennis that final top-five spot.

Polesitter Vergne subsequently wound up sixth, the DS-badged Stellantis powertrain proving no match for the more efficient Porsches and Jaguars.

Nyck de Vries ended a long wait for his first points of the season, finishing seventh for Mahindra. The former AlphaTauri Formula 1 driver briefly held the lead until relinquishing it to Wehrlein on lap 12 after being told “we don’t want the lead” over the radio by his team, who were aware that the Mahindra’s efficiency deficiency would not allow them to safely remain out in front for long. De Vries’ teammate Edoardo Mortara was the only retiree of the race, his race ending on lap 16 after contact.

Envision Racing’s Sebastien Buemi, DS Penske’s Stoffel Vandoorne, and Abt Cupra’s Lucas di Grassi rounded out the top 10 ahead of Nissan’s Sacha Fenestraz who made up 11 places, and Robin Frijns in the second Envision entry. Frijns had been in the lead conversation early on but faded, then spun late on ending all hopes of a points finish for the Dutchman.

Sergio Sette Camara (ERT), Norman Nato (Andretti), and Nico Mueller (Abt Cupra) were next, with Sam Bird 17th on his return from injury, one spot behind his teammate Jake Hughes in what was a forgettable day for the NEOM McLaren team.

Behind the penalized da Costa, Maserati MSG Racing’s Jehan Daruvala and Maximiian Guenther completed the finishers, the pair being split by ERT’s Dan Ticktum. Guenther was also given a penalty, of 10 seconds, for causing a collision with Mortara at turn 6 – the incident which forced the Mahindra driver to retire.

RESULTS

Evans looking to double down for Jaguar as Formula E season doubles up

Mitch Evans is entering the second half of the Formula E season on a high note after a perfectly timed victory in the Monaco E-Prix two weeks ago. Now he’s hoping he can carry the momentum of that victory forward as he seeks a first title in the …

Coming into the season, the Jaguar TCS Racing driver was a championship favorite for many, but didn’t notch up a first win until Round 8 of 16. Now, on the eve of the Berlin E-Prix, which kicks off the second half of the year, Evans is hoping that Monaco win can be a sign of things to come as he looks to put a “a really strange start to the year” behind him.

“The win came at a really good time — obviously doing it in Monaco is extra-special, but from a championship perspective, I really needed a win like that at that time of the season,” he told RACER. “I would’ve preferred it to come earlier — I was close in Sao Paulo — but I’ve just had a really strange start to the year.

“Hopefully it puts us in a good place, performance-wise, to continue our form that we had in Monaco. The tracks now are all completely different to that so we’re going to have to keep on top of (things) on the performance side.

“I’m feeling good. It was good to get that win, it takes a little bit of relief out of our bodies, but it’s now crunch time in the season so we’re shifting focus onto that.”

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Unlike the start first half of the season, the second is comprised of only doubleheaders, with events in Shanghai, Portland, and the UK in addition to this week’s races in Berlin filling out the remaining eight rounds of the calendar. It’s not something Evans is particularly fond of.

“I’ve never really been a fan of doubleheaders,” he admitted. “I like that single event, grand prix style, when you focus on that one race and then you go onto the next one. I think it’s just a little bit fairer because if a powertrain’s dominant in one location, they get two stabs at it and sometimes it’s difficult to turn things around over the course of a doubleheader.

“We’ll have to wait and see. I hope it plays out, but if I had my own way, I’d rather have eight different locations.”

Of the four stops on the schedule left, Evans feels that there will be an even split of tracks that will benefit Jaguar’s package and that won’t, with the temporary courses playing more into the team’s hands.

“Hopefully here (Berlin) and I think London will definitely suit us,” he said. “Portland and China are probably more my concerns — those types of tracks don’t tend to suit our package as much.”

Monaco breakthrough was a relief for Evans (at left) as well as a step ahead of Jaguar TCS Racing teammate Cassidy, who figures to be among his strongest rivals in the title race. Sam Bagnall/Motorsport Images

Another thing Evans will have to juggle in the championship run-in is his relationship with teammate Nick Cassidy. After the Monaco race, Evans hailed Cassidy, saying “I really appreciate the team player he was today.” But with both still firmly in the championship fight, could it lead to an intra-team conflict? Evans doesn’t think so.

“At this time of the season we’re both in with a shot of the title so it’s too early to be putting any eggs in the one basket,” he said. “Hopefully we both are in with a good shot come London, but it will be up to me and him to manage and the team to manage. But as long as it’s fair between both of us, if one of us is out of contention come the end, you kind of expect some sort of help.

“It’s a good problem to have.”

Team tactics satisfy both Jaguar teammates in Monaco

Mitch Evans praised “team player” Nick Cassidy as the pair secured a one-two finish for Jaguar TCS Racing at the Monaco E-Prix. Evans won by 0.946s over Cassidy, who himself had a 2.889s advantage over DS Penske’s Stoffel Vandoorne at the end of the …

Mitch Evans praised “team player” Nick Cassidy as the pair secured a one-two finish for Jaguar TCS Racing at the Monaco E-Prix.

Evans won by 0.946s over Cassidy, who himself had a 2.889s advantage over DS Penske’s Stoffel Vandoorne at the end of the race, but it was Cassidy’s control over those behind him that allowed Evans to maintain the lead after taking both of his Attack Modes.

“We knew it was going to be a tough race, we knew it was going to be all about the strategy around the attacks — obviously Nick and I started side-by-side so that kind of helped things as the race evolved,” said Evans. “We had a rough game plan before going to the race but I really owe this win to Nick — he really helped me when it mattered, I helped him when it mattered. I really appreciate the team player he was today.”

Expanding on the strategy discussions, Evans acknowledged that while races can often turn out differently to how they’re predicted, Monaco matched the Jaguar team’s expectations.

“Obviously we discuss all potential scenarios but the majority of the time when you get on track the race happens completely differently,” he said. “But the way it turned out, I think it was as expected and we knew we were going to be racing with each other on track instead of tripping over ourselves — we may as well help each other (and) it’s quite a bit Attack loss here.

“I think the DS guys were trying to do the same thing as well but we executed that perfectly. Obviously we discuss this pre-race but also other scenarios that could potentially happen, but it played out exactly as we wanted it.”

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While the result was a landmark one for Jaguar, it was also a big moment for Evans who was a six-time podium finisher across GP2 and Formula E prior to his win on Sunday.

“It’s just an amazing achievement for the team, and for me to finally get my first win here after trying — even before Formula E I was trying, in GP2 and everything — so to finally get on the top step here means the world,” he said.

Evans’ first Monaco win was also his first of the season, a season which has so far been disappointing for the New Zealander, who started the year as one of the championship favorites.

“I haven’t started the way I would’ve liked,” he admitted. “I came off the back of a really strong end of last season with many wins and podiums so I was expecting the same to start, or at least early on in the season.

“Obviously I had Brazil which was a second place, almost a win, but it’s not really gone the way I would’ve liked so far. So while this win’s come at a really good time, a really critical stage of the championship, to get my first win finally is nice — to get that first win of the season always feels like a monkey off your back and then you can try and carry that momentum through the rest of the championship.”

Cassidy, who won last year’s Monaco E-Prix for Envision Racing prior to switching to the factory Jaguar team this year, paid tribute to Evans, noting that he’d been the team’s leader in practice and qualifying at Monaco,

“Today’s about Mitch — he won the Monaco E-Prix, he’s a very deserving winner,” Cassidy said. “(He’s had) many, many podiums here (and been) very close. I was lucky enough to be in a position with him, the other way round, last year and got the win here. It’s very very special.

“We had the performance today — I think not quite as much as Mitch in practice and qualifying, we struggled a little bit, but we were there when it counted and it’s a great team result.”