With consistent podiums and race-winning form, Mitch remains very much in the title fight.
Speaking with Mitch who has landed in Jakarta ahead of races 10 and 11 this weekend shared his experience with the electric racing series so far, his journey as a professional racer with team Jaguar TCS Racing and what he and the team need to execute to secure the Championship.
Formula E has evolved rapidly since its inception and Kiwi Mitch Evans has been front and centre of it all. Now in his seventh season and as one of the only drivers who has raced for one team exclusively. He is one of the series’ biggest stars and along the journey has come agonisingly close to championship glory on multiple occasions but has yet to sinch the title. Mitch speaks fondly of seeing the series evolve from humble beginnings to a series with global recognition for its close racing, attributed to the challenging tracks, a world-class driver lineup, and relative parity across the field.
“I've been fortunate enough to drive all generations of Formula E cars and when I first joined, you know, the technology was new and there were things to get used to, like having two cars per driver to complete the race. But, the battery technology evolved really fast, and that enabled us to obviously finish the race with a single car, but the series also really started to grow too, with a lot more people taking it more seriously. And growing the overall awareness of electric cars as well.”
“I think the racing has really helped as well. The racing is fantastic. The racing is a bit different in terms of how we go about it with energy management, that’s quite a specific thing to Formula E, but we also have a and that opens up a lot of great racing. We go to some great locations and I think, honestly, on average, have probably the best driver one up in the world if you look at everyone involved in the series.” Said Evans.
Having been with Jaguar TCS Racing since their Formula E debut, Evans has always had a long-term vision of his relationship with the team.
"When we first entered the championship, we were the worst team, joining late in season three and we had a very compromised power train while leading a completely new team with two rookies. So we were on the back. By season four or five, we started achieving strong results, including my first win. The team believed in me and I could see the people coming in, I could believe a lot in and structure and the team. We have consistently battled for the championship, coming second last year and the year before that I was looking good to win the championship, but we had a technical problem in the race and handed the Championship away. But being part of the team's progress has been amazing, winning the championship would be the ultimate achievement for us. We are now one of the strongest teams in the series, and the future looks promising with a strong focus on electric vehicles."
That long-term vision is something Evans has always had in his career, a couple of drives in Brother Simon’s V8 SuperTourer aside, Mitch has only ever raced single-seaters.
“Quite early on in my life, my career, when I was in go-karts, F1 was my target, so obviously that pathway is always going to be open wheeler based, um, so the go-karts and then to Formula First and Formula Ford and TRS and then I also did a little stint in in in Australia before I went to Europe with, um with GP3. So, yeah, I've always been a lover of open-wheelers and I always had a plan. We got some great support from the Giltrap’s back home. They gave me the opportunity to get over to Europe. I got very, very close to F1 but unfortunately that last step, the most important step didn't fall my way. But Formula E functions very much like a mini F1 in many ways and I’m happy to have forged a great career here. It’s given me a platform and it's a job now for me, you know, I turned professional when I joined Jaguar and now I’m seeing a return on the journey to this point”
Jakarta is the next race in the season and it may well be a pivotal event in the Championship. Evans has won here before and he’ll be looking to repeat that success. But Countryman, Nick Cassidy, who races for team Envision using the same Jaguar drivetrain as Mitch, won’t make it easy. Nor will the volatile temperatures.
“We run on a (controlled) road tyre, so that also is quite different to many other single-seater categories and we race on the streets, so that’s pretty unforgiving. And then you add in the climate here in Jakarta, and it's stinking hot and super humid and we’re in a new generation car, so those are all mitigating factors to our performance.”
“On the back of the last year, we obviously moved up in confidence but to try and predict or pre-empt here is not easy. But yeah, it's nice going into a race to know you've had some good success there.”
With one new track this season (Portland) still to run, one where Mitch has had strong results, (Rome) and one where luck hasn’t gone his way, (London) execution by Mitch and the team is critical for the races ahead. Something Evans is confident Jaguar TCS Racing can get right.
“I mean, there's no doubt that the performance is there. It's been there for the last few years, but a few little things have crept in, like some reliability things that have let us down at certain points. But I think we should have a clean run to the end of this season, the Jaguar Power train has been operating very well, I had a bit of a slow start, but hopefully any bad luck is over and we're looking strong in the championship now, so yeah, we just have to have a clean finish.”
“Strategy in Formula E is very, very complex. Each race is very difficult to manage, so to try and keep composed in the races between myself and the team and obviously reliability, as these cars are very complex. We will be doing all we can to make sure we can execute in every race.”
The next Formula E Round is Jakarta (June 3 - 5 NZ time)
Mitch is currently 4th overall in the championship. 27 points off leader, Nick Cassidy with 3 rounds left in the season.
