Just Electric

Evans still aiming for overall title despite disappointing Berlin opener

Jaguar’s Mitch Evans still aims to fight for the 2019-20 Formula E championship, even if the victory isn’t “realistically” possible.

Evans heads into the final four races of the season just a point behind Lucas di Grassi and Stoffel Vandoorne in joint second, but is currently 69 points behind leader Antonio Felix da Costa.

With 120 points still up for grabs over the next six days, Evans is still in the championship fight, but his difficult start to the Berlin sextuple has put him on the backfoot.

“We need to find form very fast, as [da Costa] is going to be very hard to beat. The combination [with Techeetah] is extremely powerful,” he explained.

“Realistically da Costa’s probably not catchable, but it’s still possible and we’re going to be doing what we can.

“It really does seem like the race is on for second place at the moment. I’m still in the hunt for that but, if we can turn things around for the rest of the championship, if we find the form we had in Mexico and Marrakesh, there’s no reason why we can’t come away with some strong races.

“Everyone’s working really hard here. We’re trying to make that happen but, at the moment, second place is the most realistic target.”

Qualifying will be especially important in the final four rounds of the season, as energy efficiency takes priority in Berlin.

Only da Costa was able to make it through from Super Pole while running in group one in Berlin, though Evans did qualify inside the top 10 on Wednesday.

As five drivers are currently fighting for second in the championship standings, they will qualify on a level playing field, but the fact his fellow Group one runners have also struggled with the conditions hasn’t given Evans any confidence.

“The first day I was very happy with my qualifying lap; getting into the top 10 in group one was always going to be difficult and I think we did a solid job,” he said.

“Antonio just destroyed us. There was a bit of sourness when you get four tenths handed to you like that.

“Beyond that, Thursday was horrendous. I did what I could, but it was way off.

“[Group one struggles] doesn’t give me confidence because I know at the moment, we’re not working in the operating window that we have been, at the very front.

“I’d rather be making Super Poles comfortably like Antonio’s doing. We have the package for it, we just unfortunately missed the window the last couple of days.”

 

Bethonie Waring

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