Toby Culverwell's Blog

Mitched Out

Mitched Out

Introduction

If you have read my introduction to my review the first race of the 2026 Hankook Berlin ePrix, then you know of my opinion of the rumoured move of Mitch Evans to the upcoming Opel GSE Formula E Team and how I see this as a step-down (competitive-wise) for Mitch from his current ride at Jaguar. My main concern is that Mitch will not be able to achieve that Formula E driver championship with Opel as they will be inferior to both Jaguar and Porsche so rather than fighting for 1st, Mitch is fighting for 6th instead. The more I thought about it, a question came up - why hasn't Mitch Evans already won a title? Is it because he is not a championship-calibre Formula E driver?

Statistically Speaking

As of writing, Mitch Evans is the most successful driver in Formula E history in terms of wins at 16, beating out champions like Season 6 champion Antonio Felix da Costa (14), Season 2 champion Sebastien Buemi (14), Season 3 champion Lucas di Grassi (13), and Season 4 and 5 champion Jean-Eric Vergne (11). While wins are all well and good, what matters for a championship is consistency (unless you're NASCAR between 2014-2025 and probably arguably since 2004) Mitch Evans doesn't fully have that as while he sits 3rd all-time for career points (1097) and owns 30% of the top 10 most points earned in a single season, his longest point-scoring streak is 10 races and his longest non-points-scoring streak is 11 races - 9 of which were outside the top 15. Another example of his inconsistency is that Mitch has led the standings twice in his entire career for a total of 2 races after his in Mexico City in Season 6 and his win in Sao Paulo in Season 11 (oddly enough, 2 of Mitch's worst seasons). Whereas, former teammates Sam Bird and Nick Cassidy have led the standings for 4 and 8 respectively whilst they were Jaguar drivers although admittedly, both drivers do this in single seasons: Season 7 for Sam and Season 10 for Nick. As of round 8 of Season 12 (2025-2026) of Formula E, Pascal Wehrlein has led the standings for 18 races, which is the record and Mitch's total of 2 puts him only ahead of: Nico Prost, Felix Rosenqvist, and Alexander Sims (they all have 1). The average number of races in a season the champion leads the standings is 6.82, with the lowest number of races being 2 (Lucas di Grassi in Season 3) and the highest is 14 (Oliver Rowland in Season 11).

Comparison of Champions

How does Mitch compare to the champions mentioned in the above paragraph?
We will start with his current teammate, Antonio Felix da Costa. Mitch has more points in his career than Antonio, despite the latter having started 18 more races, as Antonio only has 977 points (good for 5th all time) and Antonio's best season points-wise his title-winning season in 2019/2020 where he scored 158 points or 47.88% of max possible points that season. Mitch has had better seasons in terms of points (Seasons 8-10), but none match that percentage of max possible points as his best season is Season 9 in terms of both points and max possible points percentage at 197 and 42.46% respectively (a season in which he finishes 3rd). Antonio has also been more inconsistent as well, as his longest point-scoring streak is 8 races and ties for non-points-scoring at 11 races. He has though, obviously, led the standings for more races at 10, 7 of which come from Season 6 (2019/2020). Based off the stats shown, Mitch Evans is the better driver than Antonio, as he has been more consistent and only reason why Antonio has a title and Mitch doesn't is due Antonio being at the right team at the right time.
Joint 2nd on the all-time wins list Sebastien Buemi, who is 2nd in terms of career points at 1130 points and has started 17 more races than Mitch. In terms of points, Sebastien's best season is Season 3, as he scored 157 points or 45.11% of max possible points (despite scoring 2 less points Season 2 has a better max possible points percentage at 51.67%) and leads the sport in terms of consecutive points finishes at 22, although that was between seasons 1 and 3 as you could score the bonus point/s for fastest lap even if you were outside the top 10. His streak of non-point scores is only 7 and has led the standings for 15 races, 11 of which were consecutive (end of Season 2 and until the end of Season 3's New York doubleheader). All of Sebastien's stats come from his halcyon days during Seasons 2 and 3 and he was still consistent enough to finish no lower than 4th all the way up to Season 6. However since then, only once has he finished top 10 in points (Season 9) and only once has he scored triple digit points (Season 9 again), but Mitch's era of competitiveness was shorter as he has only 4 seasons finishing 4th or better in the standings (Seasons 7-10) so I don't think Mitch will ever be better than Sebastien Buemi unless his results dramatically improve (e.g: he wins a championship).
Retiring driver Lucas di Grassi has made the most starts of any Formula E driver at 155 and that has netted him 1077 points, 20 less than Mitch, but good enough for 4th all time. Lucas best season for points was Season 3 where he scored 181 points or 52.01% of possible points that season, making him one of 3 drivers to score over 50% of max possible points in a single season and the others are Sebastien Buemi (Season 2) and Jean-Eric Vergne (Season 4). Lucas's longest point-scoring streak is only 10 races and his longest points drought is for the same amount (assuming that he scores points in the next 5 races). He has led the standings for 13 races, with all of them coming in the first 3 seasons and until the gen 3 era, where he has been saddled with the worst powertrain in the field, his longest non-point-scoring streak is 4 from Season 4 and he finishes inside the top 10 in the standings in the first 8 seasons with his lowest position being 7th in Season 7.Like with Sebastien, Lucas's stats are such that the only way Mitch can be better is by having a title-winning season, something he hasn't done yet.
Our final champion to compare to is Jean-Eric Vergne, who sits 7th all time in terms of wins at 11 but has career points total of 1245, the most all time, from 154 starts (the record for most consecutive starts). Jean-Eric's best season in terms of points is Season 4, where he scored 198 points (joint 4th all time, tied with Pascal Wehrlein's title-winning total from Season 10) for 56.89% of max possible points - the highest percentage of anyone in this sport. He has scored points in 20 consecutive races, good enough for 2nd all time and has gone no more than 4 races consecutively without points (The New York and London doubleheaders from Season 8 that derail his title challenge that season) and has led the standings for 15 races. For Mitch to beat Jean-Eric's stats, he is going to need more than one championship - he is going to need 2.

Reason for Absence

While Mitch has stats that are better than some champions, what he is missing a year of sheer dominating consistency and while I could list all of the factors that probably took him out of title contention (SB10 has video on his Youtube page which details this and rates the collapses - available here), the fact of the matter is someone is always having a better start or he will start out good, but then hit trouble immediately after and is 20 something hole that he spends the rest of the season trying to rectify. A good way to look at it is how early Mitch wins into a season. For example, his first win at the 2019 GEOX Rome E-Prix of Season 5, is 53.85% into the season and the next season when he leads the standings for the first time, his win is at race 4 of an eventual 11, or 36.37% into the season, and takes him out of the lead is Antonio winning the next race and him finishing 6th, before Antonio wins another 2 races and he finishes outside the top 10 in those races. the 3rd earliest he has ever won into a season, Season 8, comes at race 4 (again) of 16 and going into that race he is 42 behind the leader Edoardo Mortara and 27 behind the eventual champion Stoffel Vandoorne - why? 10th in the opening race followed by 2 results outside the top 15 (21st and 19th). It is ultimately this cycle of good, not terrible results, followed by disastrous results followed by a podium finish (usually a win) that keeps his trophy cabinet as habitable for Formula E championship trophies as Chernobyl to human life.

Does It Even Matter

Only Mitch can definitively say whether or not a drivers' championship matters to him and one can argue the same fo his legacy. For example, Helio Castroneves has 4 Indianapolis 500 victories, tied with 3 other drivers for most all time, but he has no IndyCar championships but is he a lesser IndyCar driver than his friend and compatriot Tony Kanaan, who has 1 IndyCar championship and 1 Indianapolis 500? Helio has more wins at 31 (6 in CART and 25 in IRL/IndyCar) compared to Tony's 17 (1 in CART and 16 in IRL/IndyCar). If you were wondering what CART and IRL refer to, then look up the American Open-Wheel split of the mid-90s because I haven't got time for that rabbit hole. What's more impressive: most wins in a championship or a title in said championship?

Conclusion

Statistically, Mitch Evans is probably an all time top 5 Formula E driver with only the greatest (Sebastien Buemi, Lucas di Grassi, Jean-Eric Vergne) better than him. Ultimately a champion is the greatest amongst his competitors for that season and in Formula E, 9 drivers have been the greatest amongst their competitors for a season (or 2 if you're Jean-Eric) and those who aren't but come close are just simply great and Mitch is just simply that - a great but never the greatest.

References

Here is a list of the webpages in which I visited in order to write this post.