Motorsport: Mitch Evans hoping for better race pace in Morocco Formula E

NZ Herald

10 Jan, 2018 03:16 AM3 mins to read

Mitch Evans is hoping to build on a successful opening round of the Formula E season. Photo / Getty Images

Kiwi Mitch Evans and his Panasonic Jaguar Racing team are hoping some tweaks to their car will see improved race pace at this weekend's e-Prix in Marrakesh, Morocco.

The 23-year-old bagged his and the team's maiden podium in the season-opening round in Hong Kong in December on the back of superb one-lap speed. But his team has spent the past few weeks trying to increase their mid-race strength.

Formula E's rules put a freeze on the design of the power train so that everyone uses the same machinery all season but Evans thinks that doesn't mean they're stuck with what they can do to improve.

"It depends on what you are trying to fix," he told The Herald. "A lot of the car is homologated – basically all the hardware is frozen. Every team submits their designs to the FIA before the season starts and that is basically what you are given for the rest of the year.

"What is open is the software involved, which is a really big part of this championship. There are a lot of things we can try that will hopefully help our race pace.

"We will try a lot of things for this weekend and hopefully we can make a jump forward.

"The car has potential but once we are in that energy saving mode we need to try and have that pace.

"We are confident we can do some things that will help but we won't know until we get on track in Morocco."

Even if the improvements aren't drastic, Evans knows he has a competitive race car this season. That comes as a relief after the Jaguar was well off the pace in its debut season of 2016-17 after they took ownership of the outfit too late to make changes to the power unit.

His break-through podium in Hong Kong proved a major boost to the team.

"To be honest going into the weekend everyone was still in the dark – no one was really sure how we all stacked up against our competitors," he explained.

"It was nice to be very competitive from the outset. We were competitive in all practice sessions and in qualifying sessions – making it onto provisional pole and then contesting the super pole, which was a first for me and the team so it was nice to tick that off.

"There were a lot of good things for the team that weekend with some really encouraging raw pace.

"I am really happy with where we are at. There has been a lot of hard work from the team since last season. It was a tough year for us so it was nice to reward everyone and give them that boost that we needed after a tricky year last year."