The FIA World Endurance Championship has released its entry list for the 6 Hours of Portimao, the second round of the championship, with only one notable change: the addition of Antonio Felix da Costa.
Otherwise, the entry list is almost identical to the entries which will run at Sebring in just under a week’s time. That includes 11 Hypercars, 12 LMP2 cars, and 14 GTE-Am cars, for a total of 37 entries.
Da Costa, who will be behind the wheel of the #48 Hertz Team JOTA Oreca 07-Gibson, will replace David Beckmann, who is scheduled to drive the car at the 1000 Miles of Sebring. This means the Portuguese racer will drive at his home race — the second Portguese national in the race. Filipe Albuquerque will be competing against Da Costa for LMP2 honours, in the #22 United Autosports Oreca 07-Gibson.
This also means that all three of JOTA’s future Porsche 963 drivers will have at least one WEC race under their belt this year before racing the Porsche, with Will Stevens and Yifei Ye racing at both Sebring and Portimao. JOTA are expected to debut their 963 in the Hypercar class at Spa-Franchorchamps, the third round of the WEC season.
“It’s a great honour to have a World Championship round here in Portugal,” explained 31-year-old da Costa. “For me, it’s awesome and we’ve won here before and we’ll be trying to win again in front my home crowd now as Hertz Team JOTA. I’m very excited and looking forward to a great race.”
The 6 Hours of Portimao will be held on 15th April 2023, at the Algarve International Circuit.
