Yahoo Autos Polar shift in da Costa’s fortune is keeping his internal fire lit
Three wins in a row, four from the last five races – it’s quite the contrast for Antonio Felix da Costa who spent the first part of the year struggling for form.
After inheriting Saturday’s race victory from a penalized Mitch Evans, the TAG Heuer Porsche driver managed a chaotic Sunday race perfectly to win on the road ahead of Robin Frijns and Evans. He’s now firmly in championship contention with two rounds to go, but despite being Formula E’s flavor of the month, he’s not taking anything for granted.
“When I won yesterday it was already impressive in a good way, but these moments don’t last forever,” he said. “I think all three of us (on the podium) have gone through incredible runs of races and we’ve gone through slumps, so I’ll just make sure to enjoy it and never take it for granted, appreciate it. It could be the last podium of my life, we never know. Hopefully not.
“The truth is we’re navigating through these races really, really well, the car is quick and we’re doing it in a smart way – I’m having fun doing them and navigating through these races with my team. [It’s an] impressive run of races, I’m not going to deny it, and considering where we started the season, if you told me four or five months ago that I would have won four or five races this year I would not have believed you. It feels good.”
His tear in the latter part of the season followed a disqualification at Misano that denied da Costa his first win of the year. It would be easy to buy into the theory that the stripped victory has fuelled him since then, but it’s not something he’s buying into himself – at least not wittingly.
“I hope not, because I don’t ever want to go through a slump like that ever again,” he said. “It’s one thing to be in the middle of the pack, but we were really slow, so that was a serious problem in the beginning of the year.
“Hopefully that’s not… I don’t think when I’m angry I go better, but I will evaluate it, and if that’s the case, then we have a problem, because I’ve got to get angry a lot.”
One motivating factor, however, could be putting himself in motorsport’s shop window. He was denied a shot at the World Endurance Championship this season after driving for Porsche customer Hertz Team Jota last year, and it’s no secret da Costa yearns to be back there in addition to racing in Formula E.
“Obviously that’s the goal for me. I’ve never denied it that I want to be doing the WEC as well,” he said. “I love racing, and if I could race every weekend, I would.
“Last weekend I was racing in Brazilian Porsche Cup – they came to my hometown race and my hometown track and I got permission to do that race and that’s just the way I like to go.
“For now, I’m getting married at the end of the year, maybe some kids hopefully if everything goes well very soon, and maybe that will all change, but as I’m still fit, quick and youngish, I really want to take the opportunity to race as many cars as I can.
“There’s a few of us here that like to do that. It doesn’t make me better, it doesn’t make me worse, it’s just what I want to do and that’s the goal…”
