Jaguar TCS Racing’s Mitch Evans has spoken to Motorsport Week about his thoughts on the Gen4 era, his relationship with team-mate Nick Cassidy and his hopes for the remainder of the 2024 FIA Formula E season.
Jaguar’s Team Principal James Barclay has told Motorsport Week of his thoughts on the upcoming Gen4 era of the sport, and Evans shared his views on the potential of longer races, the genesis and evolution of the cars and how they might transpire. “It’s a little hard to predict, I would say”, said Evans, adding: “It depends on the racing format – right now it’s 45 minutes, and it’s very intense due to the workload behind the wheel, so I guess it’ll be down to how we do the engine management.
“The cars will be quicker so that’s always mentally draining, but I’ve done long races in the past when I was in F2, so it’s not a big concern, but in that, there is a lot less to manage because it’s just tyre management, a bit of strategy and it’s more straightforward.
“It’s all depending on factors that are a little unknown right now.
“The races shouldn’t be too long, not just from a driving point-of-view, but more in terms of capturing the audience’s attention.
“For example, I think Formula 1 is on the limit of being a bit too long for the next generation – 45 minutes is what works right now but a little bit longer shouldn’t be a hindrance if it’s exciting racing.
“It’s early days and we’re still all working-out what’s being done – for me, I don’t really mind as long as we can manage races well, and be competitive, they could be four hours in that case!
“But as a sporting product, it has to be thought carefully so it ticks all the boxes from the point-of-view of sport and entertainment.”
With Evans scoring points in all three rounds so far, and with team-mate Nick Cassidy leading the standings, Jaguar are looking strong with the resumption of the season in Sao Paulo three weeks away. Is Evans feeling any pressure or indeed, the watchful eyes of Jaguar’s competitors? “I don’t really see it as pressure, it’s a good position to be in.
“I think there’s potentially more pressure if you have had a trickier start and performance or consistency isn’t there because you’re on the backfoot, whereas I feel we’re in a good position from a performance point-of-view, and consistency will bring us the Drivers’ and Teams’ Championship.
“I see it more as a benefit, a privilege or an advantage in ways but in this game, it’s so hard to be consistent so it’s no guarantee we will be there for the rest of the year.
“There’s so many things that have to come together, especially between and during races, and if we can be the at that level for the rest of the reason, that will be the key for us to succeed.”
Title leader and fellow Kiwi Cassidy is a new recruit from Jaguar’s customer team, Envision Racing, and the two are friends off the track. Is that friendship a help to both the drivers and the team as a whole? “It’s definitely no disadvantage I would say, when you have a new team-mate you always try and understand that person and their character and how they go about their business but with Nick there’s none of that from my side, so that always helps.
“It’s a seamless transition, especially with the relationship with Envision and us last year and his position with them, so he knew already how we operated, along with our package.
“It helps understand each-other in the races and at the moment it’s working well, and hopefully we can continue that.
“The pairing is super-strong and we want to try and maximise that and we see that as a big opportunity to do well in the Teams’ Championship.”
Along with Cassidy, Evans came within a whisker of the Drivers’ Championship last year, losing-out to Avalanche Andretti’s Jake Dennis in the final weekend in London. Is Evans confident of repeating his title charge with the aim to go one better this year? “I think I definitely can – I’ve had an OK start but it could’ve been a bit better so I am a bit annoyed by that as I have a bit of catching-up to do but it’s very much early days.
“I’ve got more points than I did at this time last season, but I don’t really look at it like that – I could be in a better position, but I’ve got more than enough belief and faith in myself and the team that we can have a very similar next phase of the season as we did last year.
“Lots of things have to come together to produce those results, but I’m feeling optimistic.
“I’m looking forward to getting back into this season and get some trophies and victories.”
