Seoul Destroyer – Can Evans Stifle Stoffel?
New Zealand's Mitch Evans goes into this weekend's Formula E season finale as the best-placed challenger for World Championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne.
Evans is still licking his wounds after missing a chance to trim the Belgian drivers lead to 22-points in London after an inverter problem at the end of Round 14 saw drop him out of fourth and into retirement. The Jaguar driver had been showing a front running pace.
For Evans, the London problem was made doubly frustrating, as the inverter issue stopped his title run, literally, dead in its tracks at last year's decider, where he locked set to take the title, only to be left stalled on the start line.
The Mercedes driver goes into the inaugural Seoul event with a 36-point lead over the New Zealander, which means all he needs to do is beat Evans in the weekend's opening race to secure the title.
The newest circuit on the Formula E calendar takes in Seoul's Olympic Park. The lap starts with a tight, technical run before entering the Jamsil Olympic stadium as the 22 racers put on a show for the grandstand audience.
As they leave the stadium, a batch of sweeping turns leading to long straights connected by 90-degree turns follows as the circuit wraps around the Olympic park as the drivers jostle position around this fast 2.6km, 22-turn circuit in an attempt to go for gold.
Seoul also brings more high temperatures for the teams to manage. As a result, EV battery systems and powertrains are at their most efficient and performant inside a specific temperature window.
On top of that, it's a new track surface that will likely evolve rapidly. So what might be true on Saturday morning might be entirely out of the window come the afternoon - and certainly by Sunday.
As if there weren't enough headaches for drivers and engineers to contend with, the weather could prove critical, with high humidity bringing a high chance of sharp, heavy downpours.
Whoever nails Seoul will have more than earned their silverware.