Formula E Miami E-Prix: A Look Inside Jaguar TCS Racing – A CleanTechnica Exclusive

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In motorsport, Formula E is still new to a lot of sports fans. It was conceived as being net zero carbon right from the start, and it is an organization that is trying to advance electric vehicle (EV) technology while providing a competitive racing spectacle — after all, that’s what fans demand. When Jaguar TCS Racing secured last season’s ABB FIA Formula E Teams’ World Championship title — Jaguar’s first world title victory since 1991 — it was a feat to celebrate. Their two drivers completed against some heavy competition and biggest names in motorsport — and they came away with the trophy.

So, when CleanTechnica got the chance to conduct an exclusive interview with Jaguar TCS Racing driver, Mitch Evan, who has been with the team for eight years, we grabbed it.

The venue was Homestead-Miami Speedway, and the event was the ABB FIA Formula E Miami e-Prix weekend. It was a hot spring day prior to practice sessions. The air hung thickly with humidity.

The 26-year-old New Zealander made his ABB FIA Formula E debut with Panasonic Jaguar Racing in 2016 when the British team returned to racing. Sitting under a black umbrella embossed with the Jaguar logo, Evans laughed, saying that he has been racing “from the moment I was born.” He started karting at the age of six and was, at 16, the youngest driver ever to win the NZ Grand Prix.

Evans started 2024-2025 Season 11 with a record-breaking victory from last on the grid, a win he attributes to “a bit of luck and good strategy from me and the team.” The team put together “good speed, the right calls with Attack Mode. On the first lap I made up 10 places.”

Evans really likes that São Paulo track layout, and “street circuits are my favorite.” In fact, he wishes more Formula E races were set on street circuits rather than dedicated tracks. “I much prefer to be racing around the streets,” he admitted. “With zero emissions, we should be in the streets to promote this amazing technology.”

Newly engineered for Season 11, the Jaguar TCS Racing team introduced the new Jaguar I-TYPE 7 — which they hope will make them competitive enough to obtain another championship. Faster and more efficient than its previous iteration, with all-wheel-drive technology, the I-TYPE 7 can reach 60 mph in just 1.82 seconds. That’s faster than today’s Formula 1 cars. An F1 car typically accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in about 2.1 to 2.7 seconds.

Formula E regulations require all teams to adopt the same chassis, bodywork, and battery. The Jaguar I-TYPE 7’s powertrain, which consists of an inverter, motor generator unit, and transmission, though, are specific to the company. So is the software that helps the devices understand what to do and how to do it. The Jaguar I-TYPE 7 can switch seamlessly between 350kW all-wheel-drive traction and 600kW regenerative braking.

We learned from our garage tour that the Jaguar needs no rear disc brakes and begins the race with only 60% of the energy it needs to finish. The remainder of the energy is derived from regen.

To maintain physical strength for racing, Evans says, “I like running, cycling.” He also noted that, “there’s no power steering in the car,” with the implication that driving the I-TYPE 7 is exerting in and of itself. There’s no hydration system built into the car, unlike F1, but, “with 45 minutes” of race duration, “you can get away with it.”

His diet prior to the competition is to “eat clean,” but he actually doesn’t “eat much on race weekends.” The adrenaline and excitement take over, so he eats “nothing too heavy. Outside of the track, I eat healthy.”

The Day of the Race

Evans came into the Miami e-Prix with 25 points to the season. He and his partner, Nick Cassidy, had a lackluster qualifying, and Evans was stuck in 16th place for the early part of the race. All the cars were monitoring their energy usage at this point. Cassidy variously jumped ahead and then stayed close by Evans in the running. When Evans engaged Attack Mode, he jumped up to 8th place on lap 13. He used up his allotment, though, and fell quickly back to 16th place.

When Nick DeVries went off the track at lap 18, a safety car was deployed, so drivers in the middle of Attack Mode were disadvantaged. A queue of cars bunched together down a straight as the safety car was released. The green flag came with seven laps left in the race. Evans had 36% energy remaining then.At lap 20, however, he had six minutes of Attack Mode, but so did several of the cars ahead of him.

Three cars crashed in the chicane, and Evans was one of them. Günther punched into the wall, and Evans had no place to go but into the back of Günther. Evans told his engineer there was damage “probably to the front wing and suspension.” Evans, however, was able to maneuver back to the pit. He sat in position 20 near the back of the grid under a red flag with the race stopped. Team principal Jame Barclay said Evans was “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Teammate Cassidy found himself moved up to 8th position during the race stoppage, which meant that there would be a frantic conclusion to the end of the race — four laps to go, with an almost flat-out sprint to the finishing line. The cars whirred and screamed, sounding like a jet engine accelerating, then poised in place for a standing start. After the restart, Cassidy moved up and down the rankings, while Evans made a little progress from the back of the field.

The exciting end of the race was punctuated by several teams that were not able to fulfill their allotment of Attack Mode time due to the safety car. Nato came across the finish line first, but Weirlein was named the actual winner due to all the sporting penalties.

Final Thoughts about Jaguar TCS Racing

Evans is the Dow Ambassador for Jaguar TCS Racing, which is one of the sponsors for the Jaguar TCS Racing team. All of its sponsors are technical partners of the team: Wolfspeed, Google Cloud, Tata, and Dow. “We are lucky that all partners are integrated into the team through material science — efficiency, thermally,” Evans allowed, “which helps us to go quicker.”

Evan paused, then added, “Everyone wins out.”

He is proud of the effect that the Jaguar TCS Racing team has on everyday driving, noting that Formula E is about more than mere racing. “We’re racing to make electric driving better for everyone,” acknowledging that Formula E is a test bed to develop new EV technologies for the benefit of future EV customers.