FIA 'encouraging' unfair racing – Evans

Mitch Evans believes the FIA stewards choosing not to investigate incidents such as the one he had with Jean-Eric Vergne in Diriyah is "encouraging" aggressive driving.

Evans and the factory Jaguar outfit were left stunned at the Diriyah double-header last month after the FIA opted against investigating Vergne, despite two questionable moves on the Kiwi.

Both incidents took place in the opening race of the double-header, with the first having seen Evans forced into the wall by Vergne after exiting the Attack Mode activation loop at Turn 19. It was noted, but not investigated.

When asked by RacingNews365 if he will race Vergne differently in the future, Evans admitted that it depends more on whether the FIA start to investigate this type of incident.

"Depends, I think it will depend on also how the FIA and the stewards view these incidents," said Evans. "I was a little bit vocal about it, but I think something needs to be addressed.

“I feel like it's encouraging people to race a bit more aggressively, I would say a lot more unfair.

"I mean, especially the one where I got pushed into the wall that wasn't even looked at, there was clearly contact. And genuinely when there's contact, maybe it's a little bit on the edge, or someone's maybe lost out, normally it's looked into."

No investigation 'wrong'

The other incident between Vergne and Evans which also was not investigated took place on the final lap, at Turn 18. Evans dived down the inside in an attempt to snatch second place; however, Vergne moved twice under braking.

Evans had to react to the two-time Formula E Champion's double move, which resulted in his car snapping on him. This sent the 29-year-old deeper into the corner, dropping him from third to fifth.

"The one on the last lap, when I went for the move, what I didn't agree with is that basically the fact that he moved under braking, which caused me to react and then the car snapped, and it kind of made me run into the run off further and lost more positions," said Evans.

"Just the fact that it doesn't looked at for me just encourages that type of racing, which I think is wrong. So it's not really particularly the person I think. Once drivers start to know they can get away with that, it will just encourage everyone to start doing that.

"I made a pass earlier in the race on Vergne, he didn't move, I made the move, got it done. And it was all clean and good racing. Those other two instances, just the fact that it wasn't investigated, I think was a bit wrong."