Formula E title coming ever closer: 'Started as the worst team'

Seven years with Jaguar

28-year-old Evans starts his seventh season in Formula E this weekend. The New Zealander will be competing for the Jaguar team, for which he has been driving for since his first season. Year on year, his performance is improving, leading to a second place in the championship in 2022.

"It's a relationship that has grown over the years," Evans said about his partnership with the iconic British name. "We start off as the worse team and grown a lot together. We’ve already hit some amazing milestones over the last years. It feels like home. And obviously, we’re pushing forward and hopefully, we can achieve some championships together, that’s the goal."

Despite Evans being so successful in 2022, the reset button will have to be pressed and he will have to learn again. Indeed, 2023 is the year Formula E makes the switch to the new Gen3 cars. It means more power, a lighter car and also all-new tyres from Hankook.

New Gen3 cars

''It's still early days. We are still trying to work out what this car needs and the challenges we face with it. Working out the strengths and weaknesses of the car. It’s been challenging to get on top off, but we are getting to a real Formula E track and we will get a better understanding of what to expect and then from there hopefully we’ve done some good homework since the last tests happened and we can build some good foundations to have a good season."

Asked what the difference is from the Gen2 cars, Evans can't pinpoint one thing. ''Basically, nothing that’s the same over the two cars. We have a lot more power with the front powertrain, the tyre supplier changed. That’s changed things a lot. It’s a big step forward. The sporting regulations have changed. There’s nothing really much to carry over from Gen 2."

Formula E world title

As a young driver, Evans already won the GP3 Series and Toyota Racing Series. He also won races in GP2. Last season, he won four races in FE and finished second in the championship behind Stoffel Vandoorne. It seems a matter of time before he can put that first-world title behind his name.

"We keep growing as a team. We started thinking it was complete as a fresh brand new team which has been building every year. We’ve got a really strong group of people that are extremely motivated with the same goals. Really smart people

"There’s been some consistency with me being there over the last year since we started so it’s all heading in the right direction in general. There’s still more to come from us. We all have goals to win championships, we’ve not achieved that but come very close. We let it slip away a couple of times. It’s always an opportunity with new regulations," Evans told GPblog.

The ePrix weekend starts Friday in Mexico City with the first free practice session. You can read a comprehensive preview of the upcoming season. Saturday is qualifying and race day.