Mitch Evans says now is roughly the time to begin focusing on the Formula E championship as the end of the season looms.
The Kiwi is in New York this weekend for back-to-back races, and he is fifth in the standings with three rounds left to play out.
Just 12 points separate the top five in the standings, which is currently headed by Venturi’s Edoardo Mortara.
However, Evans admits the way Formula E’s unique qualifying format works, which makes it difficult for championship contenders to secure a strong starting position, means the championship picture doesn’t become clear until the final few races.
“It’s around now you start looking at the championship to a degree,” Evans said on New York radio.
“I think it’s too early just because of Formula E’s qualifying format where you can have a lot of cars out of position.
“We’ve had some really tough races in qualifying out of position, being in Group 1 all the time.
“I think being in Group 1 is encouraging but it really ends your chances of winning races because you start toward the back.
“That’s just the way it was designed to try and penalize guys in the top six of the series.”
Still, the Jaguar Racing stalwart is impressed with his team’s success this season.
The outfit unveiled an all-new in-house powertrain for their 2020/21 season challenger, and also recruited Formula E veteran Sam Bird to partner Evans.
It’s been a pretty intense journey,” Evans said.
“We started off as a team that was just making up the numbers, and we knew that. We had three months to design a powertrain that was expected.
“We planned out a timeline of what we wanted to achieve per season and we sort of hit those every year.
“It’s time to reward them with some really good results.”
Looking at the championship picture, Evans insists two solid results this weekend will set him up for a powerful push towards a maiden title.
However, he says he needs to find a perfect balance between being too conservative and too aggressive while on track.
“We’ve been in the championship hunt and I want to be in a great position come Berlin (season finale).
“I wouldn’t say I’m going with a conservative approach [in New York] because I need to score big points but you also don’t want to miss out on opportunities now, just because one or two points can change a lot in your positioning.
“The big focus for me is at least to get a P2 or a first because that’s when you bank a lot of points and try to get ahead in the championship.”