Evans targeting historic FE victory for Jaguar in S5

Mitch Evans has set himself the target of claiming Jaguar Racing’s first Formula E victory during the upcoming 2018/19 campaign.

Evans finished seventh in the drivers’ standings as he helped Jaguar improve to sixth place in the teams’ championship in its second season competing in the all-electric series.

The Kiwi inherited British squad’s first podium finish in the season four Hong Kong opener and also recorded Jaguar’s first pole position in Formula E at the inaugural Zurich E-Prix, though he was unable to convert it into a win as he finished seventh.

When asked by Crash.net what he believes is possible for Jaguar in season five, Evans replied: “What’s possible is hard to say but definitely the target is consistent podiums and wins. I want to be fighting for the championship.

“Last year we missed some opportunities and we definitely should have got another two or three podiums but we made life harder for ourselves in many ways.

“Qualifying was strong for us last year but we did lack a bit of pace in the race, we are really hoping to fix that for this year and have a strong race car and on top of that get consistent podiums.

“But for me the win is definitely, I wake up and I just want that first win,” he added. “I obviously want it for myself but I want it for the Jaguar brand.

“It’s been a long time since Jaguar was in motorsport, they’ve made a big investment to come into the sport and I want to make that bit of history.

“I’ve been here since day one with the team and I really want that first win with the team. Hopefully fighting for the championship, whether its Nelson and I and also fighting for the constructors’ championship.”

A new 45-minute-plus-one-lap format will feature as part of a raft of changes to the race format for the upcoming 2018/19 season, which also includes the introduction of the ‘Gen2’ car and additional power modes.

Jaguar teammate and season one champion Nelson Piquet Jr recently said he felt the changes would force drivers to "think more" during races.

The new format was trialled as part of a demo run during pre-season testing in Valencia, and Evans, who ended the final day third in the timesheets, believes the new regulations could cause some surprise results in the opening rounds.

“Saudi might be a little bit crazy because the whole structure of the race has changed going from distance to time,” Evans explained. “It’s going to be up in the air until the last few laps or the last few minutes of the race.

“I think to begin with that will be really exciting, maybe a big difference in the last few laps of speed and hopefully exciting racing.”

Asked if he feels such uncertainty could open the door for Jaguar to capitalise, Evans said: “I hope we are in a position where we are not relying on things like uncertainty.

“I hope we’ll be a team that is consistently running at the front but they’ll be some races where it’s going to be on the bubble with time.

“Somebody who was 10th pounding around and accumulating energy would have so much for the last few laps and spice things up, who knows?

“It’s going to be interesting to see if that really does happen. I’m predicting that will happen, but you should see some surprise podium results this year for sure.”