Jaguar move ‘a much-needed fresh start’ for da Costa

Antonio Felix da Costa is heading into the new Formula E season in new surroundings following his move from Porsche to Jaguar TCS Racing. But it’s far more than a change of colors, it’s a chance at rejuvenation for a driver who, while successful, hasn’t always been happy in recent years.

The Portuguese driver won five times in three seasons with Porsche’s factory team, being in the championship fight for the last two seasons, yet in those campaigns, he often had to play bridesmaid to Pascal Wehrlein while constant question marks around his future swirled.

Now at Jaguar, he finds himself in another team where he can fight for wins, but crucially, he’s in an environment where he can operate more comfortably.

“It's a much-needed fresh start,” da Costa told select media that included RACER earlier this week. “I don't think I've ever needed it that much in the past, and it's been really nice to come into new offices, meet new people, new ideas, and it's just like the whole thing is just light. It's just much lighter, much easier.

“People want to hear ideas, bounce off ideas and the progression rate is very, very fast. It's been really nice – great teammates, great team principal. And the way the workload’s coming in, and the way we're dealing with it – the sim days, the testing days – it's just been flowing really, really nicely.

“It's been a very nice light environment full of hunger, full of motivation and things are just flowing really nicely. I'm happy to get on a plane and go to work, and that wasn't always the case in the last couple of years.”

While a Porsche departure was the subject of paddock gossip since the mid-point of the 2023-24 season, it was during last season that da Costa finally made the call to move on – and it came amid an attempt from Porsche to keep hold of him.

“I made my decision in my head pretty early on, I would say, pre-Tokyo,” he says. “I was done with my decision, but it wasn't as simple as it looked: there were a few contractual things that we needed to fix.

“There was a push from Porsche for me to stay, which I considered. Porsche is still a great brand and there's a lot of heritage there, and I was still winning races there.”

It's clear that da Costa is already happier in his new surroundings, before he's even turned a competitive lap. That in itself could be a bit of a hindrance – da Costa admits that when he's been angry, the results have come his way, but it's something he's looking to change.

“I don't like to say this, and I hope it's not true, but the times that when I'm angry, it correlates with good results, is quite high,” he says. “I really want to put an end to that. I want to win when I'm happy. I want to win when things are going in a nice rhythm.”

Part of achieving that will be the dynamic with new teammate Mitch Evans. As with Porsche, da Costa’s coming into a team with one of its drivers well established. But with his existing off-track relationship with the Kiwi and Jaguar’s different approach to how it goes racing, da Costa feels that things will be “hopefully night and day” compared to how they were at Porsche.

“I've been racing Mitch since 2012,” he notes. “We fought for a few championships, we fought for a few wins – some of them in the last lap of the races – and we've always been able to grab a beer afterwards and go for dinner or whatnot, and we are business partners outside of the racetracks.

“It was obviously a conversation that I had with Mitch before I signed my deal – like, ‘Look, do you think this is a good idea?’ I knew it was, but I wanted to hear from him, and there was no hesitation there.

“If I see Mitch winning a race that I can't win, I will be happy to see that. So that was the feeling that I was looking for again.

“And I can't see why things would go bad. I want to be in a position where, if I'm if I'm fighting for a race win and so is Mitch and I feel like I can't do it for whatever reason, energy, car balance, whatever it might be, I want to be in a position to go, ‘OK, Mitch, you go and win this race, I can't do it,’ and have that feeling from him back.

“I really want to get back to that place and I feel like this is the place to have that. I want to win, and when I win, I want to come back to a garage that it's happy for that. It wasn't always the case in the past, so I'm sure that will be the case now.”

Da Costa (at right) is already confident about his working relationship with new teammate Evans.

While his new teammate is established in the Jaguar fold, his new boss isn’t. Ian James joined Jaguar during the off-season, too, moving over from the now-defunct McLaren Electric Racing business, and da Costa is upbeat about his addition to the team, and insists the change in leadership won’t cause too many growing pains because the existing backbone of the team will be the biggest factor when it comes to its competitiveness.

“I think there's positive things in Ian coming in, of course,” da Costa says. “I didn't have the chance to work with James Barclay, and that was one of the things I was really looking forward to, but when I finally heard that Ian was confirmed to be our new team principal, I was very happy.

“I couldn't see anyone better to fill the shoes of that important place in the team. Ian is super professional, his knowledge of the sport in and outside of the garage is very, very good, so I don't see it as something harder or better or worse. The technical team that was established is there – and that's what makes the car go quick – and Ian is there to make sure that all the departments are talking to each other, that he keeps a happy team underneath him and I'm sure he's the perfect guy for that.”

But for all the positive words about his new employer, da Costa holds no animosity towards Porsche.

“There were some difficult conversations there towards the end, but I was really happy with the last call,” he says. “The last call was like, ‘There's a door always open for you here. We were trying to do the best for us, you're trying to do the best for you, and no hard feelings.’

“So I was really happy with that last final call with them, when everything was sorted and I can't judge any of them. They are still a winning team, just the way they want to operate is not the way I want to operate. So I can't point fingers and say they are not good at their jobs. That's not true.

“There's none of that wanting to prove, I just want to do my thing, be happy, win races and go home with a smile on my face. Ultimately, I think revenge just keeps other people in control, and that's not what I want.”

Da Costa’s move was one of many in the paddock this off-season – his spot at Porsche was taken by former-Andretti driver Nico Mueller, while the Jaguar seat he’s filled was previously occupied by Nick Cassidy who moved to the new Citroen team alongside Jean-Eric Vergne who departed DS Penske – which signed McLaren refugee Taylor Barnard to take the Frenchman’s place.

All-in-all, just three of the 10 teams named entirely unchanged driver line-ups, making da Costa’s open-secret move key to the driver merry-go-round.

“Ultimately when I made my call, there was a topic of paperwork and legal stuff that needed to be fixed,” da Costa says. “I knew there were a few drivers calling me in the background, ‘Hey, man, make a decision, because you need to move so we can move.’

“And I told them all, ‘Look, guys, my decision’s been made. It's not up to me now, but the decision’s been made.’

“I'm always very upfront with all the guys that I share the track with. I want nothing but the best for them as well, for their professional lives, and I tried to help them all when a few of them called me. So I never kept a secret from them, my decision was always clear and I kept them in the loop so I could try and help a little bit for their careers as well.”

He moves from one teams’ and manufacturers’ champion to another now, so naturally the expectation would be continuation – more wins for him, more titles for the wider organization – but the 2019-20 Formula E champion is under no illusions that he has an easy job ahead of him.

“I'm expecting a difficult start, to be honest,” he says. “I don't want to find excuses now, but I've tested the car, and the car is great, but there's so many new things to learn and to understand, and with only four days in the car before, before Sao Paulo – yes, we have the simulator, which has been a help – but yeah, I'm not underestimating the challenge, especially in the fourth year of GEN3.

“I want to win races this season. That's clear. Is that enough to win a championship? I don't know, we'll see, but those are the goals. I know what's expected of me, and I know that's why I got hired. So I'm preparing myself for the challenge ahead. I’m here for the challenge and I know we're going to make it work.”