Before the Formula E action took place on track at the Berlin E-Prix weekend, Pit Debrief caught up with Mitch Evans in the media pen. The Kiwi driver spoke about his expectations for the team, maintaining strong momentum in the championship, and his approach to the weekend.
Replicating the Formula E victories of years prior at the Berlin E-Prix
Throughout the years, Evans has had several strong performances at the Berlin track. Last season, the Kiwi took victory in the first race after qualifying on pole. In 2023, he rocketed to his first win around the German circuit. As he has found himself on the podium several times here, Pit Debrief asked if he believes he can replicate the strong performance this time around.
“I will try. I’ve won here twice, I’ve been on the podium a couple of times, but I’ve also had some really horrible weekends here. I’m a bit open-minded always coming to Berlin because of the nature of the surface, this weird kind of airport runway, kind of cheese grater thing. The tyre window is so critical and it’s very narrow, the window that we’re trying to get the tyres to work. So if we can do that, I’m quite confident we can have a good weekend. For the races, both races I think will be quite chaotic, so trying to keep your nose clean and just execute well with the team in terms of strategy. If we can do that, I think we’ll be in a good place.”
As race management is crucial at Tempelhof, Evans believes it will be an energy-saving race.
“Yeah, I think it will be. The second race is a lap shorter than last year, which then makes it a little bit less energy-sensitive. So, we do less laps with the same amount of energy, but generally Berlin is very energy-sensitive, that’s what we call it. Especially race two, maybe even race one, but more race two, you’ll see at the start of the race, it’ll be quite slow, there’ll be a lot of overtaking, so we’re still expecting that. Those races I feel like we’re going to be quite good in, but they’re really hard to manage. You can knock your wing off very, very easily. You have to put a lot of trust into who you’re racing next to, because a lot of times it’s side by side. Normally, Berlin is very big for that.”
Evans on continuing a strong momentum at the Berlin E-Prix
The Jaguar driver currently sits third in the Driver Standings with 65 points. While he is 18 points behind Pascal Wehrlein in first place, there are important points up for grabs this weekend. His season already includes a win in Miami and two podiums. With the championship still having several rounds to go, Evans has a good chance of continuing his solid performances.
Speaking about building a strong momentum and his season thus far, Evans reflected:
“Recently, it’s been great. Ever since I won in Miami, we’ve been on a good run. I do feel like momentum is with me and with the team, Antonio as well, he’s come up with a double win, but in Formula E, I know that can come to a stop pretty quick. I’m chilled. I know things can go either way. I want to try and use that momentum, but I feel like anything can happen. I’m just taking one race as it comes, because we’re in a good position, but there’s still a long way to go. I’m trying to keep calm and composed.“
Confidence in Jaguar at the Berlin E-Prix
After ten years with Jaguar TCS Racing, Evans is set to leave the team at the end of the season. While the partnership has experienced great success, the New Zealander will be moving on to a new adventure. When asked if the continuity that comes with staying with Jaguar for years gives him confidence moving into Berlin, Evans explained:
“Yeah, I’ve been there for a long time. I think it does help, but ultimately, it just depends on how we can execute it on the day. I guess we’ll find out. To an extent, it helps. Even though we’ve been working with each other for a long time, we still have to do everything right. There are other team-driver partnerships that are well-jelled together. I don’t think it changes too much.”
As he has been in Formula E for a decade, the Jaguar driver has raced across different car generations at the Berlin track. Asked if this affects his approach to the track, he said:
“No, not really. Just trying, just do the usual prep, every time we come here or any race we try to win, but we try and use some of the historical data to try and hit the ground running, but every time we come here the conditions are different, different times of year. You can take a lot from the previous years, especially last year, but there are differences as well. Even just for myself and also the team, the fact that we’ve done well in the past, I’ve done well, and Nick has won many races for us, so that gives us a lot of confidence that we know we can do it here and we should have got it all together.”
Conditions and track layout of Berlin
When asked about the biggest difference in the Formula E track this year, Evans spoke about conditions being more important than the differences in the track itself.
“Normally, Berlin keeps relatively standard from year to year. They adjust the layout sometimes. It’s mainly just the last year’s race, and the race I won last year was a wet race and the pit boost. Now, it’s probably going to be dry, so that’s a bit of an unknown. Then the second race is a lap shorter, so it’s more around that then actually the track itself.”
Evans believes the Berlin E-Prix will be strategy-driven
The Madrid E-Prix weekend was a chaotic one for the Jaguar team. While the team won big, with the drivers securing a 1-2, the road to victory was not easy. Evans and teammate António Da Costa fought at the front, with last-lap action until the end. With both drivers hungry for the win, the teammates battled hard. One factor that played a crucial role in the race was strategy.
Asked if he believed the weekend would be strategy-driven in a similar way to Madrid, Evans responded:
“I think so. I think it’s going to be down to energy. It’s a very energy sensitive track and it’s going to be around the attack modes. I think we were a little bit surprised in Madrid with how the race played out, but here everyone expects it to be a bit chaotic, so I think it will be similar.”
Evans on the challenges and unpredictability of Formula E
Formula E presents several challenges for drivers. The all-electric series is heavily focused on balancing racing, strategy, and technology. Asked about how challenging it is to balance aggression and efficiency in Berlin, Evans said:
“Every track is tough, but I think here in the race it’s the way that we have to race the races, side by side, and how aggressive we need to be, while trying to be as efficient as possible. To be honest, it’s not really that specific to here, but that’s just kind of the difficulty in Formula E. It’s balancing being efficient but being aggressive and when to be aggressive and when to be more kind to the other drivers. If you can get that right, you can do pretty well generally, but around this track it doesn’t really change it too much, I would say. It’s just kind of the championship as a whole, but it’s tough to get that balance right.”
Lastly, Pit Debrief asked Evans about his thoughts on what a realistic outcome for the weekend would be. The Jaguar driver reflected on the unpredictability of Formula E, and how difficult it can be to know where a driver is.
“I never know. The stressful thing, but also the great thing is, I can come away with a double-win or I can come away with two P20s. You just need to know that you have to arrive and do well on the day. I think we’ll be in for a good weekend, but honestly in this championship, when I’m going to races sometimes, I say I’m going to do well and it’s a slap in the face. Then the other way around. I’ll just take it as it comes, do my best and try to pull something out of the bag.”
