Next August, it will be exactly a decade since Mitch Evans rocked up at Donington Park, along with Adam Carroll, Alex Lynn and Harry Tincknell, as they entered into a kind of shootout to see which two of the three would get a full-time role with Jaguar as it made its return to international motorsport after 11 years in Formula E.
At Sao Paulo next month, the scene of two of his record-sharing 14 E-Prix wins, Evans will begin his 10th season with Jaguar. Many believe it might just be his best chance of finally becoming world champion, something which this most stoic and perhaps even the most naturally gifted driver Formula E on the grid aches for.
Is this his season?
Ask Evans for his answer to that question and he's unusually hesitant. That's uncommon for the often-plain-spoken Kiwi, but on this occasion it is maybe with good historical reason.
"It's really difficult to say because I've gone into other seasons thinking this should be my year and it's not turned out that way," he tells The Race.
"Because we had a period through last season where there was reliability or just pure performance [issues], those are unanswered questions that I need answers for: whether we've fixed those particular tracks or those dips in performance that we had last year with the findings that we had at the end of last season."
Is Evans getting the answers? He's believed to have asked for several from his team last season when, in London, games were being played on all sides regarding how far he'd go to help departing team-mate Nick Cassidy clinch runner-up spot in the championship.
The period after London was tense and irritable. The ghosts of London 2024 and that drivers' title defeat to Porsche's Pascal Wehrlein rose up once more, and Evans left the ExCeL consumed with anger.
There is no hiding the fact the first three quarters of Evans's 2024-25 season were the worst in his entire Formula E career, even including that uncompetitive first 2016-17 season. A win at the first time of asking in the Gen3 Evo Jaguar was gift-wrapped by fortune to a large extent in Sao Paulo last December, but thereafter the points positions were not troubled for an astonishing eight months (until he won again in Berlin).
That's done and dusted now, yet a bitter aftertaste isn't too far away. Is it irredeemable or will it be an accelerant that fires Evans to a first world championship title?
"I think it's going to be probably the tightest season that we've seen in Formula E for a long time," he says.
"It's always like that in the second year of homologation: everyone refines things further, strategy-wise, everyone's on top of it, everyone knows what to do with the Pit Boost especially.
"It's going to be tough for anyone that's going into the season thinking that they may have a shot. Everyone knows that it's going to be tight.
"So, am I going into the season thinking this is my year? Not as much as other years, but mainly because some of those reasons have been that there are, I wouldn't say doubts, but there's a couple of tracks where I was very weak last year, or as a team we were a little bit off."
Why the first five races are crucial
Practically speaking, Jaguar has a few bete-noire circuits for its Gen3 Evo car, chief of which are Mexico City, Jeddah and Tokyo. Those first two challenges come in early doors, within the first five races, and account for three scores. Evans knows he can't have a repeat of last season, when he took nothing from them.
"I think we can find a better operating window and then you think we're in for a good shot. On top of that, you need things to go your way as well," he says.
"I know full well that things can slip away from you pretty quickly, or through certain circumstances that even if you do have the pace, things can still go against you."
Stir into that challenge the fact Jaguar has a new team principal, Ian James, a new team-mate to Evans, Antonio Felix da Costa, and is preparing for the arrival of a new technical director, believed by The Race to be ex-Spark and Nissan engineer Theophile Gouzin, and the shifting sands of a Formula E season could start to drift somewhat.
"It's probably been the biggest changes that the team's had with James [Barclay] leaving and also with Nick [Cassidy] leaving," admits Evans.
"Obviously it's going to be a period of us getting used to each other. I really hope that the pace we had at the end of the year is real for the whole season, but we obviously won't know that until we get to the thick of the season.
"We're feeling good, but we also know that the likes of Porsche and Nissan, and I think other teams, will make a step. So, there's that. I'm feeling good, but I'm still not overconfident, because I know that these other teams will be quick."
Could the reserve replace him?
In a word, yes.
At the Valencia test, a rival team principal quipped to The Race that he thought Stoffel Vandoorne was the most expensive reserve driver ever signed, reflecting the 2022 champion's standing and experience in Formula E.
It was said with humour but also encased within it was a twinkle in the eye.
Vandoorne will most definitely not have signed a simple 'I am the reserve driver and that is all' contract. At the very least, there will be an understanding that it will lead to more and, with him being the driver leading Jaguar's initial Gen4 development, the odds of him slotting in alongside Antonio Felix da Costa next season look pretty short.
Speaking to The Race at Valencia, Vandoorne said he was going to be driving the Gen4 manufacturer test car and that he feels it would suit his innate driving style more than the Gen3 car did.
"It's going to be a car that has a lot more aero obviously, and I have a lot of experience with aerodynamic cars, from all the junior series to Formula 1 to WEC [the World Endurance Championship]," he said.
"I think that's a big advantage compared to maybe some other drivers that haven't got that broad experience and the tyres are going to be different.
"I do feel like it's going to play my strengths. So, I'm excited to try the car and to be part of the development."
Evans appears relaxed about the situation as he knows he is, as Formula E’s joint-most-successful driver in terms of wins, an attractive prospect to other teams.
He has long been linked to Porsche and there was a discussion between parties just last summer, when the da Costa situation was getting fraught and Nico Mueller's future position wasn't absolutely nailed on.
Evans had more serious talks back in 2023, too, when his last Jaguar contract was reaching its end. Porsche feels like the favourite to absorb Evans should he and Jaguar end a decade-long partnership next summer.
But there is also Nissan and potentially an ambitious, on-the-up Mahindra too. Evans will not be want for choice and potentially if Stellantis does introduce Opel for 2026 or 2027 he might, with all his experience and manufacturer working practice, be the ideal driver to lead that entity too.
