Evans and Jaguar in need of ‘perfect day’ to win Formula E title

Mitch Evans is up against it going into Sunday’s Formula E title-decider. Having arrived in London five points off the championship lead, he now sits 19 points adrift after a tricky Saturday race.

The Jaguar TCS driver qualified third and then was stuck behind Nico Mueller (pictured above) for much of the first half of the race as the Porsche driver defended resolutely to benefit his teammate Pascal Wehrlein in the lead. Pit Boost and Attack Mode strategy ought to have given him a real shot at challenging Wehrlein but the timing of a full course yellow swung the advantage back to the German’s favor.

With 29 points on offer on Sunday, including three for pole and one for fastest lap, Evans is far from out of it, but he says he’ll need “a perfect day” if he is to finally claim the Formula E title.

“[It was] not easy, but just trying to do our best now to try to analyze what we learn from today, make sure the car's quick, or at least try and make it quicker for tomorrow so we have a real shot at pole, and then race from there, ideally,” he told RACER. “I need a perfect day tomorrow to take this.”

A perfect day is big ask for anyone, but Evans and the Jaguar team are now hard at work going over everything to ensure they have the best chance of that, with Evans believing that improving qualifying performance will be key.

“I think there's a few things we did that we could do a little bit better around quali. In the race it's a different story,” he said. “We got just a bit unlucky with who I was racing, and and then with the FCY and the pit window. 

“In terms of quali, I think we can improve the car a bit. In my Semifinal. We probably just didn't quite get the tires right. My lap wasn't great as well, I just didn't have the confidence in the car. So small things like that, they will matter, and if we can fix all those, you know, we'll be in with a shot.”

Formula E, particularly at London’s ExCeL Centre, can be chaotic and Evans is all too aware of that, but he’s hoping that can play into his hands on Sunday.

“I’ve got nothing to lose now so I need it to hopefully benefit me,” he said. “The pressure's kind of off. I need a perfect day, I’ll try and execute the best I can. Hopefully, it is chaotic – the luck hasn't been on my side today in the race with the FCY, but hopefully, tomorrow something goes my way.”
Evans’ title rival Wehrlein had the benefit of both his teammate and Dan Ticktum, driving for customer team Cupra Kiro, aiding his run to the win on Saturday. While Evans’ own teammate Antonio Felix da Costa fought through to finish on the podium, having qualified in seventh he wasn’t able to be as influential as his Porsche counterpart.

“Given the context, obviously I can't be too happy,” da Costa said. “Today it's difficult to be happy. Obviously, Mitch getting unlucky there with the timing of the FCY, and I did a good race, put some good moves out there to to bring myself forwards, and I thought without the intervention, it could have been a nice fight to the end between a few of these cars. 

“Unfortunately, these guys [Porsche] put themselves in a position to play the games that they did. It's not what we want to see, but they've done a better job than us in quali, and they were able to do it.”

And there’s no question of whether da Costa will continue to be a team player and act as something of a rear gunner for Evans, should he get a chance.

“Firstly we need to put ourselves in a position to be able to do that,” he said. That was my fault today in quali when I hit the wall in the Groups and then my car was just too damaged to try and go and progress a little bit more through the duels.

“I've been the first one to raise my hands this weekend, that it needs to be all about him [Evans]. It doesn't matter that he's leaving. It doesn't matter that I could mathematically still do it. We would not be using all of our full capacity of expertise if we didn't put all of the eggs in that basket. 

“And frankly, he deserved it. He qualified good, he was up there for the grabs, and that strategy, looking back, he could have brought himself back in the mix somehow to fight Pascal there at the end. So I think we called it right. We just got as lucky with the full course yellow.

“I'm not an idiot. I know when that full course yellow comes out, it's gonna hurt him. And I also don't want to be throwing fireworks out when I know my teammate and my friend is sat next door.”

As for external help, like Wehrlein got from Ticktum, Evans isn’t counting on it.

“That's a question for Ian,” he said when asked if Jaguar customer Envision Racing could help – Jaguar hasn’t provided a comment from team principal Ian James at the time of publication. “We've never had help for the last four years, so I’m not expecting anything. 

“Obviously, Porsche has got a lot of control over their customer teams, especially Kiro, and they're deploying all they can. So just gifting it as much as they can to their number one guy. It's not the first time I've seen it – they love to play the games – but it's a shame. But it was just unfortunate that I was sandwiched there.”