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analysis mitch evans season 11

Mitch Evans' record back to front drive in São Paulo sees Jaguar driver top ABB Engineered to Outrun

Analysis 12 Dec 2024 5 Mins

Mitch Evans steered from P22 to P1 in the 2024/25 São Paulo E-Prix Round 1 - a feat never seen before in Formula E, which saw him top the table and take a record score in the ABB Engineered to Outrun Award.

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analysis mitch evans season 11

A new era brings new opportunities, with four-wheel drive - a first for an FIA single seater - added to the 50kW ATTACK MODE boost throwing a major new variable into the mix for drivers and engineers to contend with. Even so, when Mitch Evans lined up 22nd and last on the grid for the first round of the 2024/25 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season in Sao Paulo, becoming the series’ first GEN3 Evo winner would have felt a long way off.

Barely 45 minutes later, having gained 21 places and made 11 competitive overtakes along the way, the New Zealander set a new record as the first driver to win from last on the grid in Formula E – and earned the first ABB Engineered to Outrun Award of the season to top the table in the most emphatic way.

After a technical problem in qualifying saw him stop on track and fail to set a time, the Jaguar driver started the race from the very back of the grid. To go from last to first, Evans had to navigate a Safety Car and two red flags – the latter for a crash involving Evans’ Jaguar teammate Nick Cassidy and reigning World Champion Pascal Wehrlein (TAG Heuer Porsche). It was a scary shunt for polesitter Wehrlein, as he was flipped upside down in the incident just a few laps before the chequered flag. Both drivers were thankfully unhurt.

Evans only led six of the 35 laps, but he hit the front when he mattered most. A charging opening lap set the tone: after neatly picking up three places in the first few corners, Evans pulled off a bold move halfway round the lap by committing to the outside line on the brakes for Turn 7, running millimetres from the wall and being rewarded for that judgement by ending the lap 15th. By the end of Lap 2, the Jaguar TCS Racing driver had made up some 10 positions.

Going on the attack early on meant Evans' energy usage was more aggressive in the opening laps as well, as indicated by higher average throttle depth than those around him as well as a more obviously heavy battery consumption to go with the heavier right foot. Evans actually first found himself briefly in the podium positions by mid-distance, aided by some particularly energy-hungry laps.

His move from 12th to fourth, for example, was powered by three laps using more energy than most – including a very hungry 3.5% battery drain on lap 11, which was 0.5% more than the median. That run also included Evans’ top speed of the entire E-Prix, clocking 251km/h on lap 10, which was also his highest average speed as well (110km/h).

The extent of this progress was slightly misleading. Evans was at the higher end of battery usage compared to the rest of the field during this phase of the race, and was also boosted by others using their ATTACK MODE earlier - the boost this season seemingly worth a couple of seconds a lap in Brazil. As he corrected his energy usage, running below the median from laps 19 to 27 either side of the full standing restart, he slipped back down the top 10.

But he had still made a net gain to be legitimately in the points paying positions and, in turn, opting to run a little bit more conservatively in the middle of the race set up a superb late charge.

From ninth on lap 26 to first place on lap 29, Evans took advantage of being able to attack (literally, as he was in ATTACK MODE) while others – like Porsche pair Antonio Felix da Costa and Pascal Wehrlein – had to rein in their energy usage.

Once he was in front, Evans still had the luxury of being able to push to the finish, as shown by his highest battery usage of the whole race – 3.7% - coming on the penultimate lap. This was vital at the time, given the pressure coming largely from the NEOM McLarens of Taylor Barnard in third and Sam Bird in fourth.

Heading into the final few laps, the pair - and particualarly Barnard - had almost a lap's worth of energy in-hand on Evans and da Costa. Neither could make moves to capitalise on their energy advantage, however with both Evans and Porsche's Antonio Felix da Costa, who came home second, pinned to the finish.

The new GEN3 Evo era, with all-wheel-drive and the 50kW power bonus from ATTACK MODE, will shift the strategic approaches all teams and drivers take this season. But it would be something quite extraordinary Evans’ back-to-front victory becomes a blueprint others can follow.

The race in Evans' own words

“Honestly, it's very hard to digest that one,” Evans said about winning the opening round of the GEN3 Evo era. “Starting from last I saw quite a bit, but I had an amazing first two laps as I made up 10 places. That really changed the dynamic of my race. Once Nick [Cassidy] kicked off the first ATTACK MODE mode, we could start to see how powerful that thing was. It was quite surprising.

“I was around [Cassidy], and then all of a sudden, he was in the lead. l was like, ‘okay, you have to use ATTACK MODE wisely’, because there's so much benefit of using it. I was just trying to be smart with that.

“The two interruptions really, they didn't change the dynamic, but I was always on the good side of it because my energy was always quite good. It’s good to see Pascal walk away from that nasty crash, but it was all about timing that second ATTACK MODE well.”

The race was restarted with three laps to go, with Evans’ needing to keep the Porsche of Antonio Felix da Costa behind.

“At the end with Antonio, I was really trying to hang on to the lead, because we still had to do quite a bit of energy management in the last few laps. Him being on my tow, he could have easily got a buffer on me, and it was tight. If it was any lower, I would have probably struggled to hang on to that.”