Mitch Evans

Mitchell William Evans
Nationality	New Zealander
Born	24 June 1994 Auckland, New Zealand
Related to	Simon Evans (brother)
GP2 Series career
Debut season	2013
Current team	Campos Racing
Car no.	7
Former teams	Russian Time, Arden International
Starts	85
Wins	5
Poles	0
Fastest laps	5
Best finish	4th in 2014
Formula E career
Debut season	2016–17
Current team	Panasonic Jaguar Racing
Car no.	20
Starts	2
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Previous series
2011–12 2010–12 2009 2009 2008–09 2008 2008 2007–08 2007	GP3 Series Toyota Racing Series Australian Drivers' Champ. Formula Ford Australia Formula Ford Fiesta Series Formula Ford New Zealand FFord Manfeild Winter Series Formula First New Zealand FFirst Manfeild Winter Series
Championship titles
2012 2010, 2011 2010, 2011 2011	GP3 Series Toyota Racing Series TRS International Trophy New Zealand Grand Prix
Awards
2011	Jim Clark Trophy

Mitchell Evans (born 24 June 1994), is a motor racing driver from New Zealand who won the 2012 GP3 Series. He has raced in the GP2 Series since 2013, placing placing 14th in 2013, 4th in 2014 and 5th in 2015. In 2016 he is in second position after 4 of the 11 rounds.

He 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.^[1]

Career

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

He returned to Manfield for the 2008 Winter Series, but in Formula Ford, winning seven of 12 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 Manfeild.

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.^[2] 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 at the fourth round of the 2010 Australian Drivers' Championship at Mallala.

Evans was drafted in by Australian Formula 3 entrant Team BRM to compete for them at the final round of the season, at Sandown.^[3] 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,^[4] 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.^[5]

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.^[6] 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.^[7] 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 (principal of F1's Red Bull Racing), and Red Bull driver Mark Webber (Evans' manager).^[8] The series features identical new design Dallara-Renaults, and is considered to be the feeder to GP2 and then F1.

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, his 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,^[9] Evans began with a win in the feature race at the opening round of the championship in Spain.^[10] 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 (GP3),” 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." ^[11]

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^[12] and at 18 years of age, and still a rookie, he became the youngest GP2 driver to stand on the podium.^[13]

2014

For the 2014 season Evans moved to the 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 5th 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.^[14] Evans was later signed with the team.^[15]

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F. Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2007	Formula First Manfeild Winter Series		3	0	0	0	0	105	18th
2007–08	NZ Formula First Championship	Sabre	18	0	0	1	0	707	9th
2008	Formula Ford Manfeild Winter Series	Sabre	12	7	2	9	10	813	1st
2008–09	New Zealand Formula Ford Championship		21	6	3	5	13	1111	2nd
2009	Australian Drivers' Championship – Gold Star	Team BRM	2	1	0	0	2	32	5th
	Australian Formula Ford Championship	Sonic Motor Racing Services	23	6	3	6	15	297	2nd
	VSCRC Formula Ford Fiesta Series		2	1	?	?	1	176	2nd
2010	Toyota Racing Series	Giles Motorsport	15	3	8	5	10	915	1st
	Australian Drivers' Championship	Team BRM	17	8	4	4	16	219	2nd
2011	Toyota Racing Series	Giles Motorsport	15	7	6	5	14	973	1st
	GP3 Series	MW Arden	16	1	2	0	2	29	9th
	British Formula 3	Double R Racing	3	0	0	0	0	10	20th
2012	Toyota Racing Series	Giles Motorsport	6	2	4	2	4	284	19th
	GP3 Series	MW Arden	16	3	4	3	6	151.5	1st
2013	Toyota Racing Series	Giles Motorsport	3	2	2	1	2	204	18th
	GP2 Series	Arden International	22	0	0	0	4	56	14th
2014	GP2 Series	RT Russian Time	22	2	0	1	6	174	4th
2014–15	V8SuperTourers Championship	Team 4	3	0	0	1	2	245	28th
2015	GP2 Series	Russian Time	22	2	0	2	7	135	5th
	24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP2	Jota Sport	1	0	0	0	1	N/A	2nd
2016	GP2 Series	Pertamina Campos Racing	22	1	0	2	1	90	12th
	European Le Mans Series	SMP Racing	1	0	0	0	0	10	24th
2016-17	Formula E	Panasonic Jaguar Racing	2	0	0	0	0	0	20th*

^* Season still in progress

Complete GP3 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	D.C.	Points
2011	MW Arden	IST FEA 6	IST SPR 7	CAT FEA 1	CAT SPR 5	VAL FEA 3	VAL SPR 4	SIL FEA 9	SIL SPR Ret	NÜR FEA 19	NÜR SPR 22	HUN FEA Ret	HUN SPR 24†	SPA FEA 11	SPA SPR Ret	MNZ FEA 8	MNZ SPR Ret	9th	29
2012	MW Arden	CAT FEA 1	CAT SPR 20	MON FEA 5	MON SPR 4	VAL FEA 1	VAL SPR 6	SIL FEA 2	SIL SPR 11	HOC FEA 8	HOC SPR 1	HUN FEA 3	HUN SPR 21	SPA FEA 3	SPA SPR 15	MNZ FEA Ret	MNZ SPR 20	1st	151.5

^† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	DC	Points
2013	Arden International	SEP FEA 10	SEP SPR 3	BHR FEA Ret	BHR SPR 15	CAT FEA 12	CAT SPR 13	MON FEA 3	MON SPR 3	SIL FEA 19	SIL SPR 14	NÜR FEA 16	NÜR SPR 7	HUN FEA 7	HUN SPR 2	SPA FEA 11	SPA SPR 10	MNZ FEA Ret	MNZ SPR 15	MRN FEA 11	MRN SPR 15	YMC FEA Ret	YMC SPR 14	14th	56
2014	RT Russian Time	BHR FEA 14	BHR SPR 7	CAT FEA 14	CAT SPR 20†	MON FEA 2	MON SPR 6	RBR FEA 7	RBR SPR 4	SIL FEA 1	SIL SPR 7	HOC FEA 1	HOC SPR 11	HUN FEA 12	HUN SPR 9	SPA FEA 5	SPA SPR 4	MNZ FEA 3	MNZ SPR 20†	SOC FEA 2	SOC SPR 4	YMC FEA 3	YMC SPR 5	4th	174
2015	Russian Time	BHR FEA 6	BHR SPR 17	CAT FEA 2	CAT SPR DNS	MON FEA Ret	MON SPR DNS	RBR FEA 10	RBR SPR 5	SIL FEA Ret	SIL SPR 20	HUN FEA 17	HUN SPR 22	SPA FEA 5	SPA SPR 3	MNZ FEA 3	MNZ SPR 1	SOC FEA 11	SOC SPR 8	BHR FEA 3	BHR SPR 1	YMC FEA 3	YMC SPR C	5th	135
2016	Pertamina Campos Racing	CAT FEA 12	CAT SPR 14	MON FEA 5	MON SPR 4	BAK FEA 5	BAK SPR Ret	RBR FEA 1	RBR SPR 8	SIL FEA 4	SIL SPR 13	HUN FEA 10	HUN SPR 5	HOC FEA Ret	HOC SPR 10	SPA FEA 16	SPA SPR 13	MNZ FEA 8	MNZ SPR Ret	SEP FEA 8	SEP SPR 6	YMC FEA 15	YMC SPR 8	12th	90

^† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2015	Jota Sport	Simon Dolan Oliver Turvey	Gibson 015S-Nissan	LMP2	358	10th	2nd

Complete European Le Mans Series results

Year	Entrant	Class	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	Rank	Points
2016	SMP Racing	LMP2	BR Engineering BR01	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	SIL 5	IMO	RBR	LEC	SPA	EST	24th	10

Complete Formula E results

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pos	Points
2016–17	Panasonic Jaguar Racing	Spark-Jaguar I-Type 1	HKG Ret	MAR 17	BNA	MEX	MON	PAR	BER	BRU	NYC	NYC	MTR	MTR	20th*	0*

^* Season still in progress.

Personal

Evans attended Saint Kentigern College in Pakuranga, Auckland, but left at the end of 2010 to pursue his career overseas.^[16] Evans' career has been backed financially by entrepreneur Colin Giltrap, who helped establish careers for fellow New Zealand racing drivers Scott Dixon, Chris van der Drift and Brendon Hartley.

References

1. "Evans becomes youngest Grand Prix winner". Toyota Racing Series. Retrieved 2011-02-14.
2. "2009 Formula Ford finale a cracker". autosports.com.au. Auto Sports. 25 October 2009. Retrieved 2010-01-26. A season where we saw lap records tumble at every round, the introduction of our EWP 'Hard-Charger' and IMA 'Pole Position' Awards, and our youngest ever competitor and round winner in the form of Mitch Evans – here's hoping 2010 provides us with just as many exciting moments.
3. "Mitch Evans set to add spice to title decider". Formula3.com.au. Australian Formula 3. 6 November 2009. Retrieved 2010-01-26.
4. "SuperPrix action gets underway with impressive rookie Mitch Evans on top". Formula3.com.au. Australian Formula 3. 27 November 2009. Retrieved 2010-01-26.
5. "Joey Foster and Mitch Evans create a weekend for the record books". Formula3.com.au. Australian Formula 3. 29 November 2009. Retrieved 2010-01-26.
6. Egan, Brendon (18 January 2010). "Teen driver Evans wins debut race". stuff.co.nz. Fairfax New Zealand Limited. Retrieved 2010-01-26.
7. "Mitch Evans gets surprise Italian test". speedcafe.com.au. Speedcafe. 6 April 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-11.
8. "New team collaboration between Arden boss Christian Horner and Red Bull Racing Formula 1 driver Mark Webber.". Inside GP3. Retrieved 2011-11-29.
9. "Evans retains MW Arden seat for '12". Autosport.com. Retrieved 2012-01-16.
10. "Evans storms to victory in Barcelona". GP3 The Insider. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
11. "Motorsport: Webber expects Evans to step up". Otago Daily Times. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
12. "BRILLIANT GP2 OPENER FOR MITCH EVANS IN FACE OF ADVERSITY". speedcafe.com. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
13. "COLETTI WINS AS MITCH EVANS SCALES TO BRILLIANT GP2 PODIUM". speedcafe.co.nz. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
14. Mitchell, Scott (August 19, 2016). "Jaguar Formula E team to evaluate four drivers in Donington test". Autosport. Retrieved August 19, 2016.
15. "Evans to partner Carroll at Jaguar". August 2, 2016. Retrieved August 3, 2016.
16. "Evans, Bamber in Toyota Racing Series battle". Stuff.co.nz. Fairfax New Zealand Limited. 17 March 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-21. Evans, a St Kentigern's College schoolboy who has never been to Europe, said he had endured an "up and down season" but said he has learnt what it will take to win the title.

External links

• Official website
• Mitch Evans career summary at DriverDB.com