Da Costa loses Misano E-Prix victory; Rowland declared winner
Antonio Felix da Costa has been stripped of his win in the first race of the Misano E-Prix doubleheader due to a technical breach. Nissan's Oliver Rowland (pictured above leading da Costa), who lost the lead to the Portuguese driver with two laps to go, has been declared the winner.
Da Costa's car was found to be fitted with an illegal throttle damper spring that the team says it has run since last season, when it was a listed part from chassis manufacturer Spark. It no longer is categorized as one, with TAG Heuer Porsche saying that it was not notified of the change.
“The Team Manager and the representative of the manufacturer explained that since the beginning of Season 9, they have not changed the Throttle Damper Spring,” read an FIA statement. “The Team Manager accepted that the sealed part, as shown in the attachment of the Technical Report 13 was mounted in Car 13 and was sealed in the presence of the Chief Mechanic of the team. The Team Manager stated also that on the Spark list (pedals) the sealed part is not listed.
“He explained that normally, changes of the Spark catalogue are highlighted so everybody can see the changes, but not removals.
“The FIA Technical Delegate confirmed this procedure. The representatives of Spark confirmed that this part was listed on the part list of the GEN2 cars, but not on the current GEN3 car. They also confirmed that the removal of parts from that catalogue are not highlighted nor cancelled.
“The competitor is responsible for the conformity of the car and even if there is no performance advantage, the car has to comply with the Regulations (Article 1.3.3 of the International Sporting Code).
“Due to this result the car has to be disqualified from the race and the next cars move up in the classification.”
Commenting on a post by the official Formula E Instagram account, da Costa questioned how many other cars could be ruled illegal given the offending part was a previously listed component carried over from last season.
“Throttle damper spring was an original part from Spark that was used all of last year and been removed from the rulebook without notification to the teams,” he said. How many other cars out there are on this spring?”
Oliver Rowland's second-place trophy has been upgraded. Alastair Staley/Motorsport Images
The decision elevating Nissan's Rowland to first place maintains this season's record of six different winners from six races -- and now all six winners have come from six different teams as well.
Andretti's Jake Dennis moves up to second with Tokyo winner Maximilian Guenther now third. Dan Ticktum improves on his already career-best result, moving up to fourth, with Mitch Evans completing the new top five.
Porsche has a right to appeal the decision, and has already signalled its intent to do so, although confirmation of that appeal is needed within 96 hours of the initial ruling.
Dominik Wilde
Dominik often jokes that he was born in the wrong country – a lover of NASCAR and IndyCar, he covered both in a past life as a junior at Autosport in the UK, but he’s spent most of his career to date covering the sliding and flying antics of the U.S.’ interpretation of rallycross. Rather fitting for a man that says he likes “seeing cars do what they’re not supposed to do”, previously worked for a car stunt show, and once even rolled a rally car with Travis Pastrana. He was also comprehensively beaten in a kart race by Sebastien Loeb once, but who hasn’t been?
Read Dominik Wilde's articles
Crandon International Raceway announces first-ever vintage revival & reunion for 2026 Brush Run Speed Festival
Latest News
Comments
Comments are disabled until you accept Social Networking Cookies. Update cookie preferences
If the dialog doesn't appear, ad-blockers are often the cause; try disabling yours or see our Social Features Support.