Mitch Evans says that he is likely to always regret not making it to Formula 1 and it will ‘haunt’ him for the rest of his life.
Evans raced in the GP2 series for four years in an attempt to earn a drive in F1, finishing as high as fourth in 2014, and fifth the year after.
But despite beating current F1 drivers such as Pierre Gasly and Nicolas Latifi in his time in the championship the New Zealander blamed bad timing for not making it to the pinnacle of motorsport.
Evans has had a great start to this season’s Formula E championship and leads it after four rounds, but he told BBC Sport that despite his success with Panasonic Jaguar Racing he will always regret not making it to F1.
“It was tough,” Evan said, “I worked so hard and got so close, but Formula E was starting to grow and Jaguar gave me a lifeline.
“F1 is brutal – I’ve beaten a lot of the guys in the [F1] championship.”
“I was so set on F1. It’s so hard, it’s many, many years in the making trying to get there and I came a long way from New Zealand – to not get there was extremely tough to take.
“I know I’m more than capable of being in F1, but it’s so political that timing is everything – it’s probably going to haunt me for the rest of my life.
“But it doesn’t hurt as much as it does a few years ago because I’m in a really good place in my life now.”
Evans did however say that the unpredictability of Formula E made the racing more exciting than in Formula 1.
With so many teams capable of winning in the all-electric series he said it meant any driver always has a chance of winning each race.
“It makes the race extremely exciting because everyone has got a shot at victory,” he told BBC Sport.
“Even if you have a bad qualifying and you’re starting towards the rear, you still know that you’re in it. In F1, if you qualify 12th, the chances of you staying there are pretty high.
“But it also adds to the satisfaction that when you do get it right. It’s stressful but it should be competitive and it should be unpredictable.”
