Mitch Evans


Mitchell William "Mitch" Evans is a New Zealand professional racing driver. He currently drives for the Jaguar TCS Racing team in Formula E. In 2012, he won the GP3 Series and he raced in the GP2 Series for four years, achieving 14th place in 2013, fourth in 2014, fifth in 2015, and 12th in 2016.
Evans previously won the 2010 and 2011 Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand and was runner up in the 2010 Australian Drivers' Championship despite missing three races. When he won the New Zealand Grand Prix in February 2011, it is believed he became the youngest driver to win an international Grand Prix at 16 years old.
Evans won his first Formula E race in the 2019 Rome ePrix.

Early career

Born in Auckland, Evans was a champion karter in both restricted 100cc karts, and also won the CIK Trophy of New Zealand at JICA level. He moved to Formula First for the 2007 season, competing in three races of the Winter Series at Manfeild Autocourse, and ending the season eighteenth in the championship. He contested the full New Zealand championship in 2007–08, finishing ninth overall and recording a fastest lap.

Formula Ford

Evans returned to Manfield for the 2008 Winter Series, but in Formula Ford, winning seven of twelve races he contested to take the championship. In his national Formula Ford campaign in 2008–09, Evans battled with Tauranga's Richie Stanaway who came out on top by just over 100 points. Evans won six races during the season, including doubles at Taupo and Manfield.
For 2009, Evans moved to the Australian Formula Ford Championship, and competed in the Victorian state championship. Evans was runner-up in the standings, losing out to CAMS Rising Star Luke Ellery in the state championship, and in the national championship to his team-mate at Sonic Motor Racing Services, Nick Percat. During the season, Evans became the youngest round winner in the championship's history, when he won at Sandown Raceway in August. As well as that win, he won five other races including a weekend sweep at Queensland Raceway, and a double win at Surfers Paradise.

Formula Three

Evans was drafted in by Australian Formula 3 entrant Team BRM to compete for them at the final round of the season, at Sandown. BRM acquired Evans' services to help with Joey Foster's championship bid. Evans was quickly on the pace, setting the fastest time in the official practice session, and third in qualifying. In the first race, he ended up fourth overall and third in the Gold Star class, edging out Kristian Lindbom by just over a tenth of a second. However, in the second race, Evans led home his team-mate Foster to become the youngest winner of the Formula 3 Superprix, but Foster won the Australian Drivers' Championship.
For the 2010 season, Evans raced in New Zealand's Toyota Racing Series with the Giles Motorsport team. At the first round, Evans took pole position and won the race, a feat that had not been achieved since Brendon Hartley made his debut in the 2005 Toyota Racing Series. He added a second win at Timaru, and won the first contemporary formulae race at the new Hampton Downs Motorsport Park. He claimed the title at Taupo by three points, holding off New Zealander Earl Bamber who won all three races at the circuit.
Evans returned to Australian Formula 3 for the 2010 Australian Drivers' Championship, and won the first three races of the season at Wakefield Park. He skipped the second round at Symmons Plains to test a Formula Abarth car at Misano in Italy. But quickly resumed winning at Phillip Island.

GP3

2011

Evans was signed to race in the 2011 GP3 Series in Europe by the MW Arden team which is co-owned by Christian Horner, and Red Bull driver Mark Webber. The series features identical new design Dallara-Renaults, and is considered to be the feeder to GP2 and then F1.
File:GP3 Monza 2012.jpg|thumb|right|Evans competing at Monza during the 2012 GP3 Series.
Evans won the feature race at Circuit de Catalunya in Spain, having finishing sixth and seventh in the first two races at the first round which was staged at Istanbul Park in Turkey. He then went into the Valencia Grand Prix in third place in the championship, and emerged leading the championship after a third in the feature and fourth in the sprint. He held a four-point lead over second placed Nigel Melker for the GP3 drivers' championship and MW Arden was leading the constructors championship too.
However, Evans' performance dropped off for the rest of the season, and he only achieved another point scoring round when eighth in the feature race of the final round of the championship in Italy. He eventually finished ninth in the championship with 29 points.

2012

Retained by MW Arden for the 2012 GP3 Season,
Evans began with a win in the feature race at the opening round of the championship in Spain. He also had wins at Valencia in Spain and on the Hockenheimring in Germany, and a second and two-thirds. He took his fourth pole position of the season at the final venue, Monza in Italy, but did not complete the feature race, requiring him to start from the back of the grid in race two. Evans worked his way through the field to seventh, but a puncture effectively ended his race, and the points for the fastest lap he recorded could not be claimed because he finished outside the top 10. Daniel Abt of Germany finished second in the race and was runner up to Evans in the championship by only two points.
Mark Webber told the media he was very proud of his protege, and he predicted Evans would move to GP2 in 2013. "There are a lot of good drivers in it,” he said, "yet it was Mitch who had the most poles and the most wins of anyone. He's learning all the time and I look forward to him moving up to another category next year and showing everyone what an exceptional talent he is."

GP2

2013

Webber's prediction was correct because Evans moved up to GP2 with Arden as teammate to the very experienced Johnny Cecotto Jr. In the first racing weekend of the season, at Sepang in Malaysia where he had never raced before, Evans was suffering from food poisoning and had handling problems in the first race. But he finished third in the second race and at eighteen years of age, and still a rookie, he became the youngest GP2 driver to stand on the podium.

2014

For the 2014 season, Evans moved to the iSport-run Russian Time team alongside Artem Markelov. He took his maiden victory at Silverstone and then a second at Hockenheim, in what was GP2's 200th race. Four more podium appearances saw him finish fourth in the standings on 174 points, while Markelov placed 24th.

2015

Evans remained with Russian Time for the 2015 season. Markelov was again his teammate. They placed fifth and 13th in the championship.

2016

For the 2016 season, Evans switched to Campos, alongside Sean Gelael. He took his first victory of the season in the Austrian feature race, leading a Campos 1–2 in changing conditions.

Formula E

On 19 August 2016, it was announced that Evans would be one of four drivers testing with Jaguar at the pre-season test at Donington Park. Evans was later signed with the team.

Jaguar Racing (2016–)

2016-17 season

During his first season, he partnered Adam Carroll, scoring 22 points to Carroll's five. His best result of the season came in Mexico City, where he finished in fourth place, taking Jaguar's first points in Formula E. He set the fastest lap of the race in Berlin race 1, but didn't take the bonus point, because he retired from the race. Evans took further points-scoring finishes in Monaco, Paris & Montreal to finish the championship in 14th position.

2017–18 season

For the 2017–18 season, Evans partnered Nelson Piquet Jr, who moved to Jaguar from NextEV. In the second race of the season in Hong Kong, Evans took his & Jaguar's first ever Formula E podium, finishing third in after Daniel Abt's disqualification. In Santiago, Evans finished in seventh, behind teammate Piquet, before coming in sixth in Mexico City. In Punta Del Este, Evans qualified in Superpole, but had his time disallowed for a technical infringement & had to start at the back of the grid. He fought his way superbly through the field to take fourth position. For much of the Rome ePrix, Evans was on target for a podium finish, battling with André Lotterer & Lucas di Grassi, but towards the closing stages, he ran out of usable energy & came home in ninth. Evans had a difficult race in Paris, finishing down in 15th position, but he bounced back in Berlin to finish sixth. Evans achieved a huge career milestone in Round 10 of the championship in Zurich, by taking his first ever Formula E pole position. However, he struggled in the race, losing the lead & then being hit by a drive-through penalty for overspeed under full course yellow conditions. He ultimately finished down in seventh. He retired from the first race in New York, but finished in 6th in race 2, to cement 7th in the championship, ahead of teammate Piquet, four points ahead of Lotterer.

2018-19 season

Evans was partnered by Nelson Piquet Jr. for the second successive year. Evans' season got off to a promising start in Ad Diriyah, finishing in fourth position, whilst teammate Piquet, scored his solitary point of the season in tenth. Evans scored points in all of the first seven races, the only driver to do so. He finished ninth in Marrakesh & benefitted from a penalty given to Alexander Sims in Santiago, to finish sixth. This was followed by seventh in both Mexico City & Hong Kong. For the Rome ePrix, Evans got his Jaguar I-Type III, through to the Superpole shootout & qualified second to Techeetah's André Lotterer. Lotterer held the lead at the start of the race, but a decisive move from Evans at the chicane, gave him the race lead. There was further drama, though. When Evans tried to take the Attack Mode for the second time, he didn't drive through all of the sensors & had to try & activate it the next lap. He also had to slow down during the closing stages, due to the pace during the rest of the race being faster than the Jaguar team had expected. Evans held on to the win, finishing ahead of Lotterer & Stoffel Vandoorne. Rome was also his first race with new teammate Alex Lynn. His first non-points result came in the wet Paris ePrix, where he finished down in 16th. He bounced back in Monaco, to finish seventh, which became sixth after the disqualification of Antonio Felix Da Costa. After a lacklustre Berlin weekend, Evans fought hard with Jean-Eric Vergne in the first ever Bern ePrix. Evans started on the front row & then attacked Vergne for the entire race, but due to the tight circuit & Vergne's defensive driving, Evans had to settle for second. For the first of the two New York City races, Evans qualified in 13th, knowing that his best chance to keep his title hopes alive would be to push through the field. He did just so, finishing less than a second behind race winner Sébastien Buemi in second place. This was enough to keep his title chances alive, with Vergne not scoring in the race. In the weekend's second qualifying session, Evans placed 8th & was set for points until a penultimate lap collision with Lucas di Grassi ended all hopes, although since Robin Frijns won the race he wouldn't have taken it anyway. He finished the season fifth overall with 105 points, helping Panasonic Jaguar take seventh in the constructor's standings.