Tag Heuer Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa sat down with Motorsport Week ahead of today’s Monaco E-Prix and discussed his Misano misery, his wish to stay with the team, potential interest from elsewhere and what the future of FIA Formula E might look like as the cars evolve.
It might be fair to say that the Portuguese veteran has had a miserable few weeks. Last time out in Misano, he took an emotional win – his first since Cape Town last season – as a flurry of tongues continued to wag regarding his future in the Porsche team after revelations they had tested ABT Cupra’s Nico Müller after the Diriyah double-header. The whole of Formula E celebrated a win for a man who perhaps needed it most, but six hours later, it was taken away from him due to an illegal throttle damper spring. He then proceeded to be at the back of the grid for race two, and finished 17th.
Many drivers may have felt sorry for themselves and scurried into the corner, but not da Costa.
“I think there’s a few ways to look at it,” he said.
“You can look at it and be miserable because we came away with zero points or we can look at it and come away with some good feelings because we actually did win a race on track.
“We were quick both days, fighting for podiums and victories so that’s really how I am looking at it and it’s the momentum we’ve been building since Brazil.
“Every race weekend we’ve been fighting for podiums so that’s the goal.”
It’s possible that in the frantic multitude of events that can be comprised within an E-Prix, the recent form of da Costa has gone unnoticed, and after what has been a tricky spell for him since the beginning of the GEN3 era, confidence must have been building long before Misano, something he agrees with, and, like the old hand he is, is still looking for extra advantages in his and his team’s performance.
“I think from Brazil onwards, yes.
“Qualifying, there’s a little bit more to unlock so we can start getting into the duals because that’s actually the thing really annoying me the most.
“We’ve been super close a few times, thousands and hundreds of seconds but yeah, you are correct and that’s how I’m looking at it.
“I think Brazil we actually ended up leading the race at some point; Tokyo, yeah, trying to win the race I ended up losing out on a podium; Misano, we did win the race so I think there were three weekends where we were amongst the most competitive cars, especially on race pace.
“It’s a shame that obviously the start of the year was what it was and then Misano we’re coming away with zero points because we have enough to be on a title fight and unfortunately that’s now a little bit far away, but we’re still not even halfway in the season so the motivation is high and I’m having fun in the car at the moment so that’s how we’re going forward.”
After taking the chequered flag in Misano, da Costa told his team over the radio: “Please stay me with me”. It seemed as if much of his feelings of the recent events and rumours surrounding his future with the team had been released from an emotional melting pot, but he alludes that it was towards more a plea for a general team spirit.
“Yeah, I mean our emotions are so high that when you put a microphone in an athlete’s mouth right after a moment like that, yeah.
“What came out came out but in the end there’s a lot of people here that we’re all pushing in the same direction and I think victories and success ultimately bring everyone together and that was more or less the message I wanted to convey.”
And are those victories and that success, in his mind, will be with Porsche?
“Yeah, absolutely, man.
“The dream has never changed.
“When you sign a deal to race for this amazing brand, that love will never ever go away so yeah, that’s the goal.”
Da Costa does also acknowledge that whilst his focus is on putting his understated but rich vein of form towards a title push, there is some thought towards showing Porsche that his services are required by them.
“That will be a consequence I guess but the mindset did change a little bit.
“Whenever I was having a bad day I was more concerned of what are my bosses thinking what are my sponsors thinking and actually I did change that a little bit and think ‘let’s race for myself and if I do that well then everybody else will win as a consequence’.
“So yeah, obviously the time between Saudi and Brazil was important to re-baseline some of the thoughts, changes to the car that would help me to perform set up options, driving options and I think that we used that time really really well and as you said we’ve now been on a good run of results or performances and now using the second half of the season.
“Let’s see, these races are in fact frantic and so much can happen in these races but mathematically we are obviously still in the game many races to go and we are quite good in these peloton races so yeah, lots of opportunities ahead.”
With the speculation of his future rarely far away, it may be prudent on da Costa’s part to consider any potential offers from other teams on the grid. Whilst not denying this, da Costa insists his focus is on the track.
“I have my team of people that worry about that type of stuff.
“My goal and my focus is only on driving the car quick and as I said, ultimately everybody wins if I do that properly but yeah, again the focus is now to turn the season around as we’ve been doing and keep doing it.”
Looking ahead to today’s race, and many drivers have speculated that the smart money might be on any driver in a Nissan-powered car, whether it be the works team or the customer NEOM McLarens. Da Costa – who took a memorable final lap win on the principality’s streets in Season 7 – is agreeable to the fact that the form book for Nissan in Monaco looks good, but states that he is sure that Porsche can challenge.
“The Nissan powertrain was amazingly fast last year, I think both McLaren and Nissan have three cars locking out the first three or four positions of the grid so yes, they are ones to watch absolutely but we’ve seen Porsche dominating in tracks last year that was maybe not the case this year so I don’t think it’s a given, I think everybody has improved, changed different types of stuff in their car we have already performed in places this year that we didn’t last year I think we’ve done good steps forward as well on our side and we should be in a good place to fight for good qualifying and the race.”
The Monaco weekend of course kicked-off with glitz and glamour at the launch of next season’s GEN3 Evo car, boasting incredible statistics, such as a 1.82 second 0-60 capability, and the boast that it can race on any track around. Da Costa is keen for the street circuit element – an element upon which FE is based – to remain focal to the series, and agrees when asked that perhaps one solution is to seek-out bigger and faster street circuits, opposed to including more purpose-built facilities.
“So I think that’s what you touched there is probably the best point: we just need more Monacos.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love Tokyo and I think for GEN3 and 3.5, Tokyo is OK.
“For GEN4, it will be too small if we really want to go to 700-800 horsepower, but I think if we baseline ourselves on Monacos and bigger from there onwards and larger and longer in street tracks we should have no problems.
“I mean F1’s racing here with whatever horsepower they have; we have Bakus, we have Monacos, we have the Macau circuit – we have so many options that we could eventually end-up at and I agree that a permanent track here and there is not bad for the championship but I would agree that I would like to see as many street tracks and city centres as possible, but that has its own constraints and it’s so much harder to put up an event in a city centre than in Misano for example.”
So, is a faster and wider street circuit like Baku perhaps the answer to help FE evolve without the DNA of the championship being lost?
“Yeah absolutely.
“I think Baku would be a great track for us, obviously that stretch [start-finish straight] is a little bit too long and we do need more regeneration parts but they can all be adapted – that’s easy.
“I mean it’s not really my topic to talk at in terms of how to make those happen and I didn’t mean Baku itself, but you know there are long and wide street tracks out there so we just need to find our own.”
