Shanghai E-Prix winner Mitch Evans hit back at suggestions from Pascal Wehrlein that team tactics were at play in the Kiwi’s victorious race.
The Jaguar TCS Racing man took the chequered flag in race one of the double-header weekend in China, and after contact with Wehrlein in the final few corners of the final lap, the German accused Evans of “clearly holding me up so that Nick could pass me.” When asked if this was a fair comment, Evans told Motorsport Week: “I mean it’s funny he mentions that because he did that in a race [Berlin] to help Antonio, slowing us up.”
“So yeah, I think he’s a bit oblivious to what he does on track and then accuses others; I wasn’t trying to slow him up really, I was just trying to position my car to try and give Nick an overlap on him on the last lap.
“Into turn six, he decided to go behind me so that opens up the option for Nick to go on the outside, and that was kind of happening a little bit throughout the last lap. Obviously, there’s only so much you can do without doing anything stupid, but yeah, he did it during the race in Berlin.
“I would classify it as a brake test to Nick at the apex of turn one and again, in race one in Berlin, around the Attack Modes with Antonio so yeah, I don’t think he’s the one that should be calling people out for that because he’s no angel.
Both Evans and Wehrlein were called to the stewards office after the race after being investigated for the incident, but both escaped any penalty. Evans admitted he was taken aback by being called to see the stewards in the first place, and felt that the situation wasn’t particularly well-handled.
“Let’s just talk about the one with me in Berlin. I don’t need to speak about this, but do I think they handled that correctly? I don’t think the decision was correct in the end. I think they kind of viewed it well, [but] I was a bit surprised to get into the stewards room, but they wanted to get our point of views.
“I honestly didn’t feel like I did anything wrong when I was in the car and that really was backed up in the stewards room.
“Even though we were racing hard, I did leave in the cars with and he opted to cut the track, which it’s all fine to do if he thought he was going to be run out of road but it was quickly acknowledged in the stewards room that I did leave in sufficient space, and he opted to cut the track.
“He wasn’t pushed off, but he had a lasting advantage at the same time. This is when they’ve not made the right call because if I did push him off, then I guess you can question whether he’s got a right to overtake me or not, I’m not sure, but at least it’s kind of neutralised a little bit.
“But if he’s not being forced off past the car, clearly off the track, and then keeps that position for multiple laps, and then I have to reach.
“Not only does he cut the track and gain a position, you gain energy or you don’t use that energy, and then I’m going to use more energy to pass him again, so it’s a double loss for me, and just the fact that they kind of admitted all that and saw all that and there was no action taken, that was what was a bit disappointing for my side.”
The Shanghai E-Prix was the city’s first-ever, on a revised layout of the Shanghai International Circuit, home to the Chinese Grand Prix. Despite further peloton racing in race one, race two – won by Antonio Felix da Costa – was a calmer affair, more in the classic FE style, but Evans remained undecided on whether it passed the test for him for it to continue on the calendar.
“It was kind of hard to know how the track was going to be, just because of the nature of it being a permanent facility, very wide, and obviously we’ve had a few of them over the course of the last couple of years.
“And I guess we’re all pretty worried as well going into it because of the nature of what kind of can of worms that opens up for the racing; I think one thing that really helped China compared to other tracks like Misano, and maybe Berlin to an extent, is there weren’t as many slow speed corners, so the track was a lot more flowing.
“There was still obviously at Turn 10, at Chicane, that was obviously the most sketchy area, and that’s where most of the contacts were made, but most of the track was quite medium to high speed.
“So I think you don’t get that concertina effect like you have in other tracks, I think from that point of view, it was probably one of the better tracks, like permanent tracks in terms of peloton style racing that we’ve had.
“It’s obviously still really hectic, especially in the first race, obviously in my opinion, still too extreme. Yes, race two was a lot calmer, it was a lot faster than we were expecting.
“Even just having that one lap less really made a big difference, and there was obviously less contact.
“It wasn’t quite as exciting, but again, we’ve kind of had this in every kind of peloton style doubleheader weekend.
“Where the first race is really extreme and the second race is a lot calmer, so yes, obviously we just didn’t find that balance, but the track wasn’t too bad.
“It was very difficult to get right over one lap, because, I’m not going to lie, this car doesn’t feel very natural around there, but it was definitely challenging.
“The climate, the circuit layout, the energy sensitivity, everything was all thrown at us, so it was difficult to get right.”
