> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.the-race.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Every 2025-26 Formula E driver ranked from worst to best - URL: https://www.the-race.com/formula-e/every-2025-26-formula-e-driver-ranked-from-worst-to-best/ - Published: 2026-08-31T06:20:38.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-31T06:20:38.000Z - Description: Eight drivers had a shot at the 2025-26 Formula E title. But who actually did the best (and worst) job? - Author: Sam Smith - Tags: Formula E, #secondary_feature_2 Eight drivers went into the Formula E season finale weekend with a chance of the 2025-26 world championship after a typically wild campaign. But who actually did the best (and worst) job? Sam Smith ranks all the drivers’ performances from worst to best. ## 20 Norman Nato **Nissan** Points: 20 Championship position: 19th Best result: 5th Nato’s season was barely an improvement over his last. In fact, in terms of points, it was actually just worse with one fewer than he achieved in 2025. Forty-one points across 33 races tells only some of the story of Nato’s two-season return to Nissan after what was a decent initial campaign in 2023 before a one-off season with Andretti in ‘24\. His net return was clearly never going to be good enough to stay as Oliver Rowland’s team-mate, yet his actual performances, particularly in the first half of the season, were reasonably strong. Jarama in particular looked promising with a fine fourth on the grid. But things went south quickly in the race with a mistake at Turn 1 and then a cycle back through the field thereafter. That became a familiar story in his season, as strategic missteps and a lack of race execution cost he and the team dearly. Victor Martins was seriously considered as a replacement for Nato after the Jarama weekend but Nissan stuck by him at least to the end of the season. There was genuine poor luck too for Nato, such as being shunted off by an errant Pascal Wehrlein in Sanya when he was in line for strong points. He then got serious salt sprinkled into the wounds at Shanghai, with a penalty for new components as a result of Wehrlein’s mistake. Nato showed some grit in taking a strong sixth in Tokyo but by then he knew his time at Nissan was over. A fine racing driver and a positive influence on any team, Nato has had a lucrative Formula E career, but now his six-season stint there is done. ## 19 Zane Maloney **Lola Yamaha Abt** Points: 3 Championship position: 20th Best result: 10th x3 If there is a contest for the most ludicrously unlucky driver in 2026 then Maloney takes the top step of that podium, and by a huge margin. It seemed at stages that whatever the F2 race winner did, it ended with proverbial egg all over his face to match his garish yellow overalls. The Lola driver could not catch a break throughout the season as whatever ill luck was floating around he inadvertently caught. In Jeddah he got swiped out by a wayward Pepe Marti, then qualified an excellent 10th next day and then got a bizarre penalty for an energy overspike on the way to the grid, at Shanghai his driveshaft broke; in London he had another breakage…and on it went. Most of the incidents Maloney could do little about. He must have felt like howling at the moon. His pace and understanding of Formula E was much improved from his rookie season in 2025\. It was telling that it all led to an opportunity at Nissan for Gen4, in which the Bajan is expected to be able to reveal his potential in Formula E much more. After an exasperating season of underachievement, due largely to circumstances way beyond his control, many feel as though he deserves it. ## 18 Lucas di Grassi **Lola Yamaha Abt** Points: 32 Championship position: 17th Best result: 1st Di Grassi’s final significant act in Formula E was typical box office from the rumbustious Brazilian polymath. A sensational call by him and his engineer Markus Michelberger paid off beyond their own imaginations for an unforgettable win at Shanghai. It was like Formula E’s own little weird fairytale. As a send-off for a driver who has been an integral part of Formula E’s growing up over the last 14 years or so it was perfect. Di Grassi will likely always be a central part of the Formula E paddock but his final season was ultimately 90% frustration and 10% Shanghai sensation. Again, poor reliability and a lack of out-and-out efficiency meant that aside from freak chances like Shanghai both he and team-mate Maloney were anchored to lowly positions. Di Grassi didn’t make it out of the qualifying group stages at all. That was telling because although he was in his final season, he was still able to turn it on when allowed to but it just didn’t happen for him in qualifying. His racecraft was typically robust but this year there were markedly fewer contacts - tactical or otherwise - with his rivals. Ultimately, despite his best efforts the deficits to other cars just couldn’t be overcome and the two season deficit that Lola Yamaha Abt had to others told pretty starkly across its two seasons of Gen3\. But di Grassi should be afforded huge kudos for the manner in which he led development and the team as a whole, which with a recalibration and new hires for Gen4 could become a surprise package. Di Grassi meanwhile will celebrate the birth of another child in the coming months and spend some much needed time with his family. But it won’t be too long until the competitive urge strikes and he’s at Interlagos in a Stock Car or two. ## 17 Maximilian Guenther **DS Penske** Points: 23 Championship position: 18th Best result: 6th x2 Although not Guenther’s worst season in Formula E (that came in 2022 in his single campaign with a transitional Nissan team), this was punctuated by scrappy team strategies, misguided race plans and an inherently mediocre DS Penske technical package. It’s therefore really hard to gauge Guenther’s season properly because it was essentially ruined by these factors and not by anything he could tangibly control. For DS Penske to finish the season 91 points off stablemate Citroen kind of told its own story. Decisions on race tactics fell way short. Guenther was fast in qualifying and races but was rarely in the position to use that speed to gain material benefits. With Penske not able to tell him what car he’d be racing in Gen4, Guenther took the decision to accept an offer from Envision, where he will line up alongside Zak O’Sullivan. He will immediately try to banish the memory of recent struggles to the back of his mind and rebuild the strong momentum of fine seasons with Maserati MSG and DS Penske prior to 2026. ## 16 Jean-Eric Vergne **Citroen** Points: 68 Championship position: 12th Best result: 2nd Vergne’s switch from DS Penske to Citroen felt like a seamless one until it became clear around the mid-season mark that he was never going to get close to the potential of new team-mate Nick Cassidy in being able to fight for wins and podiums. By downscaling his racing programme and taking a season off from Peugeot sportscar competition, it was assumed Vergne would be fully attuned to FE and at least getting one final Gen3 win to add to his Hyderabad E-Prix success back in February 2023. But it really never looked like happening, other than a surprise chance at Shanghai when he gambled on dry settings and just lost out to old rival di Grassi. Vergne loathed the Gen3 car concept completely. He was never truly comfortable with it but he can still race, as he proved at Shanghai and Tokyo in particular. Yet, there were also too many races where he barely featured. Yes, he had far from the best car out there but for a second consecutive season Vergne was generally beaten on pace by his team-mate, which would not have been countenanced in the late Gen1 and early Gen2 eras. There were a lot of misfortunes but it all ultimately felt like Vergne was just counting down the days to when he could kick his Gen3 experience into touch. He will now attempt to rekindle the potent force he was in Gen2, and that mission starts now as he pounds around desolate European test tracks developing the Stellantis Gen4 car. ## 15 Joel Eriksson **Envision** Points: 55 Championship position: 16th Best result: 3rd Very few fancied Eriksson’s chances at Envision and although he won’t retain his seat there for Gen4, the amiable Swede can feel quite hard done by after a promising season. Eriksson’s CV is one of racing’s hidden gems. A reasonably close runner-up to Lando Norris in European F3 back in 2017 and a DTM race winner, he has a seriously strong pedigree. He also had some real believers at Jaguar where he was a very highly rated reserve and sim driver. It was a recommendation from Jaguar’s Gary Ekerold that helped Eriksson seal the Envision drive and he pretty much made the most of the chance by making strong impressions on tracks he had no experience of. One of Envision’s leading engineers, Connor Summerville, pulled this writer aside in Sao Paulo in December and essentially said that The Race’s pre-season questioning of the decision to hire Eriksson would be proved wide of the mark. He was right. Eriksson scored points in half of the races, claimed a mega podium at Shanghai and kept ultra-experienced team-mate Sebastien Buemi honest throughout. Buemi’s 22 point haul at the London finale pulled him away and out of sight of Eriksson but generally the two were evenly matched. Eriksson’s median gap to the fastest driver in qualifying was the same as Buemi’s and the overall fight in qualifying went Eriksson’s way at 9-8. So, while Eriksson strives for drives at Penske and Lola now, he can at least look back on a very credible return to one of motorsport’s toughest pound-for-pound grids. ## 14 Pepe Marti **Cupra Kiro** Points: 66 Championship position: 13th Best result: 2nd A little like Eriksson, no one really fancied Marti’s chances in Formula E, as he embarked on a huge career change just after he’d turned 20\. A late deal meant just a few days of testing and his signing was really a big risk for Cupra Kiro team. Those thoughts soon faded into the distance in what ultimately became one of Formula E’s strongest rookie seasons ever. Two podiums and nine points scores from 17 races was a super strong haul from the Spaniard. Yet it all looked to be heading for disaster initially, after he barrel-rolled his Porsche to destruction when a full course yellow mistake played out in Sao Paulo. This is where not only Marti, but also Kiro, need a special mention because other teams and drivers may have panicked a bit at this point. They didn’t and the resulting calm brought results. Marti was a chunk off team-mate Dan Ticktum on out-and-out pace but that was no disgrace at all in a first season, especially in the last of a rules set, and against a talent like Ticktum. Marti’s racecraft was naturally impressive, especially from round three in Miami onwards, and his layered races were tactically excellent. He has an exciting Formula E career ahead of him. ## 13 Felipe Drugovich **Andretti** Points: 65 Championship position: 14th Best result: 2nd It’s simultaneously true to say both that Drugovich under-delivered on what was expected of him in 2026 and also that he ultimately delivered enough to make him stand out as a definite future E-Prix winner. He had a horrible start to the season with mistakes in several of the opening races, most notably when he threw a podium away in Miami after he misjudged his braking and clouted the back of Antonio Felix da Costa’s Jaguar. It was after that incident that Drugovich changed his approach a little and started to look at the longer game. That philosophy played out nicely in Monaco with a stealthy runner-up place, which in turn triggered a series of good results, including fifth in Sanya (should have been a podium but for a penalty) and fourth at Shanghai. Finally, Andretti had a team-mate capable of scoring big points when Jake Dennis didn’t. It made for a much more cohesive camp at the US team and Drugovich, despite a sloppy end to the season in Tokyo and London, felt like a driver really on the cusp of doing something quite special in Gen4. ## 12 Sebastien Buemi **Envision** Points: 97 Championship position: 10th Best result: 2nd Buemi bowing out of Formula E came quickly and perhaps the appreciation he really deserved wasn’t quite as fulsome as it should have been because of the timing of the news. He will, like di Grassi, still be involved but in a much different capacity in the future, yet his legacy will live on as one of the true original greats. His final season was a consistent one with six top six positions, the highlights of which were his incredible pole position at Mexico City and a strong second in Jeddah to da Costa. Each of those races he could possibly have won in different circumstances but in Mexico he made an embarrassing error by out-braking himself at the first corner. There were mistakes and lost opportunities but in a team that had been slightly cut adrift from partner Jaguar in the mid-phase of Gen3, Buemi’s experience held things together and he was, unlike di Grassi, always a threat in the top six during his final season. For that Buemi deserves extra credit because at the age of 37, like Edoardo Mortara, he showed that he still had a turn of pace and finally a strong understanding of pack racing. He left the championship very much on a high. ## 11 Taylor Barnard **DS Penske** Points: 68 Championship position: 11th Best result: 1st Barnard’s win in the London finale, while brilliant and thoroughly deserved, couldn’t hide the disappointment of a season which tested his resolve greatly. Changing from a Nissan to a Stellantis Gen3 car was never going to be easy but Barnard prepared and honed himself excellently, fitting into the Phil Charles led Penske environment with aplomb. But wrong steps on race strategies, poor team calls and mediocre efficiency from the powertrain all combined to leave Barnard scratching around the lower points reaches for the vast majority of the season. He was the fifth-best in the average starting position ranking (8.18), with Cassidy the only other Stellantis runner in that top 10. In group qualifying his median gap to the front was a tiny 0.139s, so he definitely had the pace. But when moored to the lower echelons in races frustration creeped in and he had a few erratic days, notably at Jarama and Monaco. He managed to wipe out Vergne on both occasions, much to the double champion’s chagrin. Barnard calmed it down quickly and had a very strong end to the season, dealing with not only a slowly dying DS relationship but also a lack of knowledge of what he would be driving in Gen4. He now knows and is relishing the Gen4 period when like Marti, O’Sullivan and Theo Pourchaire he will be aiming to make Formula E’s youth movement surge to the top. ## 10 Nyck de Vries **Mahindra** Points: 115 Championship position: 7th Best result: 1st x2 A position in the top 10 looked a bit fanciful for de Vries after a succession of mistakes in the first quarter of the season left him cut adrift of his Mahindra team-mate Mortara by a huge 79 points as he rocked up in his town of Monaco in May. It was there that he quenched Mahindra’s almost five-year thirst for a win after an assured and patient display. It kick-started his season nicely and the errors stopped. Yet, those blunders, such as clouting team-mate Mortara and Ticktum off the start line in Sao Paulo (unbelievably not punished!) and his reckless assault on Pascal Wehrlein at Jarama threw away points that otherwise might have meant he actually usurped Mortara in the final standings. De Vries’ propensity to sometimes drive like a thrashing electric eel was still there but it dissipated as the season went on. His win in Tokyo was sublime, as was his pole position in the final race in London, which should have been the platform for a third win but for tactical sloppiness. On the whole, this was a strong season for de Vries but he himself knows that he and Mahindra were actually capable of a lot more. Expect a stronger and more consistent de Vries in Gen4 ## 9 Nico Mueller **Porsche** Points: 102 Championship position: 9th Best result: 1st Mueller had plenty of doubters after a tricky first half-season when he was seconded to Porsche customer Andretti in 2025\. But a recovery in the second half of that campaign gave Porsche the confidence it needed to ensure he replaced da Costa in the factory team and would be a long-term solution. It was a shrewd move because Mueller was strong from the start, already bringing big points by the time he arrived in Miami in January. It was there that Mueller went from solid team player to potential race winner when he scored an exceptional pole position in tricky conditions. He followed that up with a fine second place before his day of days came in Berlin, when he brought home the bacon with his ‘Rosa Schwein’ Porsche, taking a conclusive win. But weirdly that then seemed to trigger some rare erratic driving in Mueller too. There was a clash with da Costa in the second Berlin race, for which he was fortunate not to get penalised, and then his ramming of team-mate Wehrlein at La Rascasse was embarrassing in Monaco. Those aberrations apart, Mueller had a strong season, one in which yes he was occasionally a bit of a patsy for Wehrlein, but there were enough strong races and 102 points. While not quite enough for the teams’ title this time, that score was a big part of Porsche’s manufacturers’ crown, as well as being by far Mueller’s best ever points total during his five seasons in Formula E. ## 8 Dan Ticktum **Cupra Kiro** Points: 62 Championship position: 15th Best result: 1st Imagine a giant malfunctioning neon sign that occasionally flashes ‘genius’ then sparks out, and on other occasions flashes up ‘irritant’. Ticktum operates like a human glitch flashing up those two traits spontaneously around the racetracks of the world. Quite how an individual can weave pure magic like he did in Monaco to deliver two of Formula E’s best ever qualifying laps, but then flounce out of the paddock in a sulky huff soon afterwards, is really hard to explain or comprehend. But this is Dan Ticktum. Plenty love him as much as they are utterly baffled by him. And vice versa. On the positive side, Ticktum proved again that occasionally, when the circumstances are right, he can deliver exceptional things at the wheel of a racing car. He was, from the first qualifying session in Sao Paulo, ‘on it’. The problem was that difficulties with aspects of how Cupra Kiro treated and prepared the older version of the Porsche 99X Electric frustrated Ticktum and he didn’t seem to be capable enough to address them properly himself. Monaco was a prime example. When trying to get a solution for the overheating tyres just didn’t materialise, he went into a perpetual loop of frustration that ended in a meltdown. That is always going to have repercussions and so it proved. There was then an ill-advised blast at stewards at Shanghai and a highly scratchy finale in London when he refused orders to allow team-mate Marti through, clearly and concisely telling his own team principal Russell O’Hagan to f\*\*\* off.’ Ticktum has chances at Lola and Penske for next season, as well as a remote possibility of staying at Kiro. Gen4 should be right up his street and the notion that he won’t be part of the grid at all, which is a real prospect, seems ludicrous for a driver capable of truly great things albeit with a side garnish of volatile madness. ## 7 Nick Cassidy **Citroen** Points: 114 Championship position: 8th Best result: 1st On one level Cassidy deserves to be much higher in this list simply because of the way he adapted to a new manufacturer so quickly, after his move from Jaguar to Citroen. To win in only his second race for Citroen, in what was arguably the best victory of the season and perhaps in the Kiwi’s whole Formula E career, was a remarkable accomplishment. At that stage it felt genuinely like he could fight for the title. Yet, as Cassidy said privately at the time and something that was corroborated by his late team boss Cyril Blais, such a notion as a title tilt was always going to be way too far-fetched in 2026. Jeddah was the real realisation of that realisation. That was when strategic conflict cul de sacsplayed out and caused irritation between driver and team. It wasn’t the only time it happened and occasionally Cassidy got a bit scrappy, especially in the second race at Berlin and then again in Monaco when he shunted Dennis off. Some high points came Cassidy’s way again, especially with a double podium in Tokyo. In light of Blais’ death just a week before, his races there were hands down the grittiest and bravest performances of the season. The bigger picture though for Cassidy is Gen4\. This is the real reason he jumped ship from Jaguar at the end of 2025. The overt pack racing of Gen3 was Cassidy’s own private plaything and he was the best at it. A growing theory that he won’t be as good in Gen4 should be deemed well wide of the mark. The last time he was in a big powerful single-seater was in Super Formula, a series which he won handsomely in 2019. ## 6 Edoardo Mortara **Mahindra** Points: 137 Championship position: 5th Best result: 2nd x2 It seems absurd to think that di Grassi won a race this season and Mortara did not. Such was Mortara and Mahindra’s pace and performances across most of the campaign that it feels a complete injustice he didn’t stand atop the podium. He had his best season since 2021-22 with a suite of performances that were as dynamic as they were consistent. After the first race in Berlin, Mortara led the title fight. But after that he was simply hanging on as a contender and never really felt like he could challenge the Wehrlein, Evans, Dennis axis. Mortara’s superpower is being super aggressive with the Hankook tyres and getting them into a pliable state so that he can retain the heat for his qualifying laps. His average starting position was the third best after Wehrlein and da Costa, but it was his ability to pivot his Mahindra so incredibly in Jeddah, Berlin and Tokyo that really took the breath away. There was real misfortune for Mortara too this season. He should have won at Mexico City but for a slight technical issue, and then in Sanya when he was right in contention for what would likely have been at least a second place a stray piece of debris hit his car's external emergency shut-off loop, instantly killing its power. That was also essentially the kill switch for Mortara’s title chances. At 39, Mortara is enjoying a great Indian summer at Mahindra. It will continue into Gen4 and don’t bet against him really featuring in that era too. ## 5 Oliver Rowland **Nissan** Points: 137 Championship position: 4th Best result: 1st The points were good, so were a lot of the performances, yet there also seemed to be something missing from Rowland’s title defence season. After the dream first three-quarters of the season in 2025, the final part was tetchy and a feeling of unease permeated his 2026\. It all came to a head in July when Rowland looked at one stage to potentially be flying the Nissan nest. It settled down but some questions still remain about their working relationship as Gen4 looms. The 2025-26 campaign began reasonably strongly for Rowland but Miami and Madrid disasters ultimately lost him a foothold in the title battle, one which he never at any point headed. A brilliant win in Monaco was his only top step of the year appearance but equally excellent podiums at Berlin and Sao Paulo were definite highs too. But the lows were like depth charges. He was furious after Jarama when the team all but fell apart tactically and then amid a damp end to the season he acquiesced the title with nothing but a whimper. That's not the Rowland way or style and it should trigger a significant retaliation and rejuvenation in Gen4. ## 4 Antonio Felix da Costa **Jaguar** Points: 128 Championship position: 6th Best result: 1st x2 A combative season from a driver who for the first half of it was still learning the ‘Big Cat’ ways at Jaguar after a torrid couple of seasons at Porsche. The hangover from that though was not too painful, as da Costa quickly adapted to getting quick wins at Jeddah and Jarama. They were both well-deserved after races that were constructed elegantly with his new engineer, Kazuto Shiomitsu. Monaco was a crossroads in the sense of a title quest for da Costa. After the dust had settled on his controversial coming together with Ticktum, da Costa himself admitted he might have been a bit more patient. It all cost him at least 18 points, which combined with being swiped out of a similar position in Miami by an errant Drugovich, was ultimately the difference between finishing sixth in the final standings and still having a proper title challenge in London. With better luck and a little more patience, da Costa will be a factor for the title next season. His grasp of the Gen4 car is already said to be highly impressive and his hunger to add to his 2019-20 title, which he couldn’t celebrate properly because of the pandemic, is now off the scale. But some caution is needed as well. What he can’t afford to do is get sucked into another chapter of his bitter feud with Wehrlein next season. Because the only winners out of such antics as the two displayed at London are the opposition and rabid headline hunters. ## 3 Jake Dennis **Andretti** Points: 164 Championship position: 2nd Best result: 1st x2 Walking back to the nearby hotel from the Sao Paulo paddock last December, Dennis swung his trophy with one hand and fought to send a text message with the other. Simultaneously, as drivers seem to be able to do, he also held a conversation with this writer about the final Gen3 season, which he had just started in the best way possible. His overview was essentially that outright consistency would be the key and that if he and Andretti did what they did in 2023, when he fought back from a mid-season slump to take the crown with a stellar end to the season, then they had a chance to top and tail the Gen3 era with titles. He was nearly proved right because his 2026 had some eerie similarities with that 2023 campaign. The mid-season trough came with a barren period between Miami in late January and Monaco (where he rarely gets any joy) in mid-May. Again, he picked up zero points in the Principality, and as he headed to his home near the track, any thought of a 2023 repeat was surely over, such was the gap (62 points) to Wehrlein the leader. But then, as the series embarked on its Asian leg, Dennis’ hopes were reborn with a win in Sanya, a podium at Shanghai and then two poles and a pair of podiums in Tokyo. It was Tokyo where the title was really lost, however. In the first race he had one hand on the winner’s trophy until a slight energy overspend allowed Ticktum through on the final lap. Then in the second race a compromise on his attack mode, via a full course yellow, shattered his plan to hunt down de Vries for what would have been a relatively simple victory. The messy circumstances of his rude exit via Wehrlein from the London finale were quickly digested, with Dennis telling the Race that having one title already it was easier to take such bad fortune. He will surely be a champion again, though. But if it transpires against him and he doesn’t reprise 2023, he’s got a decent claim to being some kind of moral winner in 2026 after a brilliantly built season and a great degree of class in how he reacted to a bad-tempered final race. ## 2 Pascal Wehrlein **Porsche** Points: 169 Championship position: 1st Best result: 1st x3 Only Formula E’s second double champion, and the first to be able to use the double world champion moniker, Wehrlein thrust himself into all-electric greatness in 2026. His campaign was not perfect. But as a driver who had the ‘favourite’ tag ahead of the season he dealt with the pressure well, despite the vast majority of his competitors actively not wanting him to win. Wehrlein is a monster of a competitor. Fast, agile, often uncompromising and most of all a cleverly effective racer, who utilises relationships in his team to a devastating degree of efficiency. A prime example of that was the pace and immediate understanding he had with his new engineer for this season, Robert Sattler. They gelled incredibly well together and had each other’s backs throughout the season. An ‘us against the world’ mentality, reminiscent of football managers like Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson, soaked through their side of the garage and it was used to decent effect. A brilliant pole and win in Jeddah, a pocket picking third at Jarama and a clinical win at London in the penultimate race were all important milestones in his successful title season. But it was the way he came back from his mid-season slump in Monaco (hit by Mueller) and Sanya (mistake overtaking Nato) that really pointed to Wehrlein as a clear champion elect. At Shanghai he smashed in some of the best qualifying laps of the season, before then taking a commanding win in the race. It took him from a 27 point deficit after Sanya to a nine point lead after Shanghai. Psychologically that was a very firm strike of the hammer from Wehrlein and Porsche. While Wehrlein was a deserving champion, he was far from a popular one. A bit of a lone wolf in the paddock at times combined with that ‘us against the world’ mentality, while positive in getting the job done, is not popular outside of Porsche’s four walls. Others feel it unnecessary and insular. Wehrlein will not care about all of that, and perhaps neither should he, because he has the silverware and the added kudos of now being a double champion. At the same time some of his remarks after he took the title in London were on the wrong side of crassness. Maybe with the benefit of the doubt being the high-adrenalin, high-stress nature of that finale weekend he might look back and re-evaluate the veracity of some of the words he expressed that afternoon. ## 1 Mitch Evans **Jaguar** Points: 160 Championship position: 3rd Best result: 1st x2 Fairytales rarely play out in motorsport. For Mitch Evans they don’t even try to. Knowing pretty much since the start of the season that this would be his final campaign with Jaguar, the sentimental script was surely already written. After coming so close, so many times, one of Formula E’s greatest competitors would surely do it this time at the final time of asking. Inevitably it went from despair to triumph and back again to despair over the nine month duration of the season. When Evans and Jaguar are involved nothing is ever straightforward or linear. From a messy start in Sao Paulo in which he ended up in the barriers, to another scrappy non-score at Mexico City, it was hardly the foundation for that fairytale to happen. But then came a reflex win in the damp and cold of Miami and a string of results to the end of the Berlin weekend where he was all of a sudden just three points behind leader Wehrlein. That win in Berlin was epic in the sense he gambled hugely on saving a set of tyres and came through from 17th on the grid. It was one of his best ever performances but actually his run from 16th to second at Jarama really set Evans apart. This was an exquisite drive on a track much more difficult to overtake on than Berlin. Creating new racing lines and overtaking positions, Evans would have won it had it not been for a recalcitrant Mueller protecting Wehrlein (sound familiar?). That scenario came back to haunt Evans a bit in London, but before that came Shanghai where a spec part failure made him a non-starter. This was the stake in the heart for his fairytale, and despite fighting performances in Tokyo and London, where again he was dealt a poor hand with the FCY, he just fell tantalisingly short. But context is everything for Evans this season. And because of that final season scenario, the poor start, the incredible Jarama and the other many stand-out performances, Evans should be considered across the season as the absolute outstanding performer.