Mitch Evans reckons the ill-timed virtual safety car was “typical of my luck” in race one of the London E-Prix, after Porsche’s “extreme games” already compromised his Formula E title chances on Saturday.
The factory Jaguar driver could only manage an eighth-place finish at the ExCeL after starting third on the grid, while title rival Pascal Wehrlein converted pole position into a dominant win.
Having arrived into the weekend just two points behind Jake Dennis in the title fight, Evans now faces a substantial 21-point deficit to new championship leader Wehrlein with 28 available.
Evans was already losing touch with Porsche’s Wehrlein in the opening phase of the race as Nico Muller backed up the field to let his team-mate run away at the front.
But the biggest deciding factor was a mid-race VSC, which allowed the likes of Wehrlein to make a cheap pitstop. Although the Kiwi eventually overtook Muller, he only scored four points as several drivers who had delayed their pitstop boost jumped ahead of him.
Having famously faced heartache at London on multiple occasions, most notably in 2024 when Wehrlein snatched the title from both him and his then-team-mate Nick Cassidy, Evans said he wasn’t surprised by how the events unfolded in Saturday’s contest.
“We didn't really do anything wrong, we just got unlucky with the full-course yellow,” Evans told Motorsport.com, referring to the incident triggered by a technical-induced crash for Lucas di Grassi.
“It's the first time that [VSC during pit window] has ever happened in a pit boost race and it's just typical of my luck for it to happen to me. It was always going to be tough because the Porsches were trying their best to compromise my race.
“But we were still in for a good race, so if it wasn't for that [VSC], P2 was on the cards. But obviously frustrated with things out of our hands. It is what it is.”
Mitch Evans, Jaguar TCS Racing
Evans revealed that he had planned to go longer in the first stint, but was forced to pit early in a bid to leapfrog Muller.
“Obviously with the VSC, going long always protects you from that,” he added. “Our intention was to go long, but with how much Nico was trying to compromise me, we had to try and clear him and we did manage to do that. How the rest of the race would have played out, who knows.”
Only 28 points are on offer in Sunday’s finale, leaving Evans with a slim chance of winning the title but he still wasn’t too frustrated about the events on Saturday.
“We did nothing wrong, right? No one can predict the rest of going into the world with these issues. So yeah, just super unlucky,” he said.
About his championship chances, he added: “I've got a shot, whether it's realistic or not, I don't know. But this is Formula E, crazy things can happen.
“I need to qualify at the front and win tomorrow's race. It's a pretty clear goal. It's obviously not the way I would have liked to go into Sunday's race, but it's a reality. Hopefully we have a bit more luck tomorrow.”
Porsche’s “games” in the spotlight
Pascal Wehrlein, Porsche Formula E Team
With Wehrlein as its primary championship challenger, Porsche put all its weight behind the German in London, as Muller and even Kiro’s Dan Ticktum slowed down to help him secure pole.
In the race, Muller backed up the pack throughout the opening stint, allowing Wehrlein to build a lead of the best part of three seconds.
Asked what he made of Porsche’s tactics and if he expected Muller to back up the field to such an extent, Evans said: “You don't really know what to expect from them. We knew they were going to play games, but I think it was a bit more extreme than we were expecting.
“It's clear who's the favourite in that team. It's been like that for a while. It all started in qualifying. Pascal just had to do one quarter-final and he was guaranteed pole after that. They're just playing all in on him, and fair enough.”
Evans’ team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa admitted he was frustrated with how Porsche orchestrated Saturday’s race, but ultimately felt a poor qualifying left Jaguar on the back foot.
“Unfortunately, these guys [Porsche] put themselves in a position to play the games that they did,” he said. “It's not what we want to see, but they've done a better job than us in qualifying and they were able to win.”
On assisting Evans on Sunday, da Costa added: “As shown today, there are many ways that team-mates can play together and in their case, even Ticktum got involved today to help their chances.
"So, fair enough. Firstly, we need to put ourselves in a position to be able to do that, that was my fault today in quali. I hit the wall in the quali groups and then my car was just too damaged to try and progress a little bit more through the duels.
"A little miracle can always happen. We need to be there for the grabs and then secondly, we're still leading the teams’ [standing] and it's a small gap, so I still need to beat all of them to get that trophy back.
"That's the main focus. I think tomorrow is the team's chairmanship and hopefully we can have a fun one and bring that one home."
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