Looking back over 2013, it would be fair to say Aucklander Mitch Evans had a frustrating time in his first year in the GP2 championship.
He stood on the podium a few times, as well as being marooned either trackside or in the pits due to mechanical failures.
Having the car fail on a number of occasions as a burgeoning professional racecar driver must be vexing; especially when you know you can mix it at the front, but then be undone by the mechanical gremlins.
Evans, however, has been involved in motorsport long enough to realise it’s all part of the big picture and should be happy in the knowledge he’s got the skills to warrant being on the GP2 grid – even more so in the knowledge he’s a former GP3 champion.
His undoubted talent, even after a fraught year, has been acknowledged by two of the leading categories’ teams, Russian Time and Racing Engineering.
The first won the team title and the second helped Fabio Leimer clinch the drivers’ title. Evans did some test driving for both teams.
“I guess it always takes a few laps to get used to a new car [the jump from GP3 to GP2] but I got on top of it reasonably quickly and even before the first race I was comfortable in the car,” said Evans.
“I proved that at the first round in Malaysia with a podium. Obviously there was a big increase in horsepower and downforce from the GP3 car but I got used to it pretty quickly.”
On a certain level Evans is frustrated with his first GP2 season. And although he learned a lot, he rues the fact the car was not as well engineered as he would have liked.
When the car was in the sweet spot the Kiwi was at the pointy end of the field, and if nothing went wrong, more often than not he ended up on the podium.
“Starting with the positives from the season, we had some really good races and we got four podiums.
“In some of the other races we could have won like Silverstone, and even Monaco if we had had a different strategy, but that’s just the way it went.
“We seemed to have had a lot of bad luck for different reasons. A lot of it came down to performance, where I didn’t think I had the car underneath me to perform where I think I could have been at.
“It was interesting that I could match, and beat, my teammate [Jonny Cecotto] when he had won races in the past and he couldn’t even get on the podium this year. That did my confidence a lot of good.
“Overall, a bit of an up and down season, but there were a few races I was very proud of and I know I have the potential to do really well in GP2,” said Evans.
No doubt it was an irritating time for the Kiwi knowing the pace was there one weekend, and then to rock up to the next meeting, unload the car and struggle to post a practice time that would barely sit him midfield.
“That was really frustrating. A lot of the time we would turn up at a race meeting and it was like I was in a totally different car.
“I tried hard, the team tried hard and it didn’t help matters much that my teammate wasn’t as keen to try and find out what the problems were as I was,” said Evans.
For a young fellow, Evans understands that what is in the past is just that, so it’s not worth angsting about it.
Trying something different, the 19-year-old has just finished competing in the annual Swisse Mark Webber Tasmanian Challenge, where he finished fifth in the elite pairs with Samuel Steadman, and reckons it’s possibly the hardest thing he’s done.
While enjoying the challenge of bounding around Tasmania, it doesn’t mean Evans and his management aren’t looking at putting together a gig for 2014.
“It’s all been quite positive and there are a few teams who have shown a good deal of interest.
“It’s up to my management team to now put together the best possible package for me to do really well next season,” he said.
“I’m confident we’ll be on the GP2 grid next year. Hopefully, I’ll be able to announce something in the next few weeks and let everyone know what I’ll be doing in 2014.
“It all seems pretty positive at the moment,” said Evans.
