I can see two things:

- Not being so good with the Rally1 car as the previous WRC car (same as Sordo). Evans has even stated this in an interview.
- The psychological effect of a younger guy beating him straight by driving (take Portugal for example)

Also this season started with two crashes from good positions (or actually three, since there were two in Sweden). Were they just bad luck or did he overdrive while trying to take his role as the championship contender? But after those incidents he never really found the extra gear he had so often in 2020 and 2021.