Berlin win resets a season of frustration for Evans

If you’d said 12 months ago that championship-challenging Mitch Evans would go 11 races without claiming a victory this season, nobody would have believed it. But that has been the reality for the Jaguar TCS Racing driver. Not a championship contender this time around, he won the season opener last December but had to wait until Saturday’s first Berlin E-Prix race to return to the top of the podium. In fact, it wasn’t just a return to winning ways, it was a return to the points.

Jaguar’s season has been torrid, but for Evans, it’s been even worse.

“It's been a really tough season for different reasons, with lacking pace, reliability – it's been a strange one, to be honest.” said Evans. “So today, actually waking up to the wet weather, I was not expecting to be as strong as I was today, but from the first up in quali, it was a rocketship, and that just makes life a lot easier.

“[I’m} quite happy to end this pointless drought. Obviously, the championship’s not even in our focus, [I] just want to try and salvage something from the season and put ourselves in a better position for the next year. Today was a good step towards that.”

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Evans' win – a record-equaling 14th in Formula E – is Jaguar's second in three races, presenting a remarkable turnaround for Jaguar which, Evans' fortuitous win in Sao Paulo aside, has struggled for competitiveness all season. While Evans was struggling to score points, teammate Nick Cassidy only managed four top-10 finishes (including a podium in mixed conditions in Monaco), plus back-to-back fifth places in Jakarta and on Saturday in Berlin.

“Both sides have had a really unusual season,” said Evans. “Nick kind of had a similar day in Shanghai to what I had today with the wet. [He] actually had a really good race today, coming back after the penalty, and finished fifth.

[It’s] much needed points for us, and we’ve just got to try and finish as high up as possible. Today was a good day for that.”

Sunday’s forecast is for rain again, albeit less than Saturday, but while Jaguar’s two most recent wins have come in similarly soggy conditions, Evans doesn’t believe that sort of weather is the key ingredient for sustained success for Jaguar.

“I've had a massive mixed bag in the weather this year,” he said. “I've been slow, I've been decent, and then today it's been really strong.

“So it could be wet tomorrow, and things change, people improve – it's just really hard to read at the moment.

“In the dry, we seem a little bit further off, so [we’ve] probably maybe got a better chance in the wet, but it's what it is. I kind of want it to be dry, just so we can keep learning. We're experimenting a lot with things to help with next year.”