The Jaguar Formula E team are intent on staving off interest in Mitch Evans from rival teams.
The Kiwi signed a multi-year deal with Jaguar in 2019, which is reportedly up for negotiation at the end of the current season.
Evans is in his fifth season with Jaguar and is the team’s lead driver after teammate Sam Bird joined the squad at the start of the 2020/21 campaign.
Bird will stay at Jaguar next year under his current contract, though Evans’ place in the team is a work in progress.
However, Jaguar team director James Barclay says an unchanged line-up for next season will provide a “settled and happy” team atmosphere.
“From our point of view, we’re really pleased with both Mitch and Sam got a really strong driver line up,” Barclay told The Race.
“We have happy motivated drivers, and they want to be in a happy, motivated, competitive team.
“There’s always lots of talk, but fundamentally from our side, we’re just focused on making sure on both sides that the team and drivers are settled and happy.”
Interest from Evans is said to come from several rival Formula E teams, including Porsche who may lose their current line-up amid their return to sportscar racing.
The two-time race winner will be a valuable contribution to any team.
Yet Jaguar want to keep Evans for at least the next two seasons because of the introduction of the new Gen3 car in the 2022/23 championship.
Barclay says teams will want consistency in their driver line-up between next season and the start of Gen3 to help with the development of the car.
“I think it depends on how you’re structured, for some manufacturers that have lots of programmes or test drivers are doing multiple programmes, maybe they’re slightly different,” Barclay said.
“Ultimately you want your race drivers who are going to be competing in Gen3 to help develop the car and if you’re the driver, you want to be doing that as well.”
Evans is currently third in the 2020/21 standings.
The next round will be the Mexico E-Prix on June 19-20.
