Is this a Formula E 'nearly man's' best chance yet at title glory?

By:

Jake Boxall-Legge

Jan 12, 2023, 3:14 PM

With braking issues scuppering his championship hopes at a crucial moment in the 2021-22 Formula E season, Mitch Evans is more determined than ever heading into this year. He explains how he plans to make it third time lucky after two title near-misses

Subscribe to PRIME Sign in

On the 35th lap of the second race in London's 2021-22 double-header, Formula E's four-way title battle took a decisive swing. Mitch Evans, one of those four drivers, had earlier reported that his car started to feel strange on the brakes. His Jaguar engineers in the garage were called into action to comb through his data readouts to try to alleviate the concern, and they hoped they'd found a fix. But it was to no avail.

At that stage in the race, Evans was running fourth, a crucial position ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne, whom the Kiwi was trailing by 24 points in the title fight. Holding station would shave the gap down to 22 points; a miserable weekend in the British capital had already effectively ended the title hopes of Edoardo Mortara and Jean-Eric Vergne, albeit not mathematically. Thus, a good result for Evans could set up a thrilling two-way tussle for glory at the Seoul finale.

comments

Jake Boxall-Legge

Twitter

Jake Boxall-Legge Autosport’s Technical Editor. Having studied Automotive Engineering with Motorsport at the University of Hertfordshire, West Country-born Jake's original ambition was to design racing cars. During a year between studies in which he accidentally rekindled a love of writing, he took up a Master's in Motorsport Engineering at Oxford Brookes. Halfway through his master's year, he was offered a place on the Autosport Academy, conducting occasional freelance duties before becoming the press officer for Formula 2 and GP3 in 2018. Autosport offered him a return to the fold later that year to serve as its Technical Editor. His voice appears on a number of videos and podcasts, and can often be found writing about terrible Formula 1 cars in excruciating detail. In his spare time, Jake enjoys baking and blames his failure to make it past the Great British Bake-Off interviews on his tenuous grasp on choux pastry. His dream is to open a brunch cafe - and his willingness to make outrageous puns in inappropriate situations has earned him the contempt of his colleagues.