Right time, right place for da Costa in Misano win

In the lead up to the Misano E-Prix, there were whispers that Antonio Felix da Costa might be about to depart the TAG Heuer Porsche team after a difficult start to the year. While teammate Pascal Wehrlein won the season opener in Mexico and headed to Italy with the points lead, da Costa hadn't been on the podium once and looked to be struggling. But a hard-won victory in Saturday's opening round of Formula E's Misano doubleheader flipped the script -- something the Portuguese driver had been confident would happen.

“It's obviously a tough start to the season, but this is life,” said the 2019-20 Formula E champion. “There's ups and downs and everybody has bad days -- maybe sometimes two, three, four in a row."

Round four in Sao Paulo was a turning point for da Costa, who began the season with a retirement, followed by a 16th and a 14th. In the Brazilian capital, he finished sixth, before improving to fourth in Tokyo two weeks ago.

“I had to paddle a little bit, but eventually… there's a lot of people in this team that are with me, and they helped me get to this place and turn it around,” he said. “I think the last few weekends, we've been building nice momentum. I knew we could make this happen, but it's hard trying to keep a smile on your face when you're trying to convince everybody else that this is possible.

“All in all, it's come at the right time, and I'm sure we will still have bad days this year. I've got no doubts, and it's important to prevail.

“I've been here (in Formula E) for 10 years, I've had amazing days, really bad days, and in the end, I'm still able to (win) sometimes.”

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Like fellow Porsche runner and podium finisher Jake Dennis, da Costa had to battle to the front from outside the top 10, having started 14th on the grid. But given the nature of Misano, with its long straights and few braking zones, he wasn’t surprised with how the race played out, as energy saving took precedence that made drivers reluctant to keep the lead in the early stages.

“I think that was exactly what we expected, to be honest, but you can only foresee so much,” he said. “Every corner, every lap, every straight you have to be completely on full alert -- you can’t anticipate or react to what the other 21 guys decide to do on that straight, that corner. I think awareness is probably the key word of today -- keeping the car clean, front wings on the car and, and at the same time, be efficient.

“It went good for us today -- (it) very easily can go wrong, but I'm very pleased with how we approached it. Honestly, I was freestyling out there. Obviously, you have a plan and there were laps that that didn't really go to plan, but I guess it was the same for everyone. We have a very efficient powertrain, I do believe we have something as good or better than some of our competitors, so knowing that it allows me to obviously come and take a bit more risk.”

Da Costa said that while his initial push to the front resulted in him being overtaken as he used up energy, the Porsche’s superior efficiency allowed him to overhaul Nissan’s Oliver Rowland and remain in front.

“There was a conversation on the radio with the team, like, ‘Should we go now?’ and when they said ‘Yes,’ I got passed by three cars,” he related. “Then Oli went, and he actually his car looked like it was handling really, really well, which was compensating a little bit for the deficit of energy he had to me. But still, energy prevailed and I was able to make the move.

“But it was close. It was really, really on the limit to decide when was the right moment to go.”