Q & A with Antonio Felix da Costa
Portuguese teenager Antonio Felix da Costa impressed in today's rookie test in Abu Dhabi as he set the third-fastest lap - quickest among those trying a Formula 1 car for the first time
AUTOSPORT was there when the Formula 3 Euro Series frontrunner met the press afterwards.
Q. You set some good times at the end of the afternoon. Are you happy with your day's work?
Antonio Felix da Costa: Yes. I'm really happy. It's such an experience to have, especially with a team like Force India that has been in F1 for a long time. The guys really know what they are doing and it's a big help for them to tell me what to do initially and how to get on with it.
It's just amazing how everything works. In F3, you have one button on the steering wheel but in F1 you have about 100 different things you can do. There's a lot of different things that you have to get used to. But at the end we were okay.
Q. How easy was it to know how much you could attack and how much speed you could carry into the corners?
AFDC: In the fast corners especially, I thought I was already going pretty quick into them but in the end they were just flat. It's amazing how easy it can be flat. I had some moments today, but it's pretty easy to handle.
Q. You ended the day third fastest - how important is that in terms of getting your name known?
AFDC: It's very important in every way. For me, my confidence, my driving and everybody around me. And especially in my home country, Portugal, I think it's good now to try and get some better support from everybody. We showed good potential today and we'll see what we get out of it.
Q. What surprised you most about the car?
AFDC: Just how quickly the revs come up, the noise of it, the sound, the fast corners and the brakes. You get as much g-force in the braking as in the fast corners and my neck suffered a bit to be honest. I need to bring myself up to F1 level!
Q. How nervous were you?
AFDC: Not nervous, but anxious. I was lucky to see Paul di Resta going out and I was here for the race weekend to see the guys working but it's always nicer when you are involved. On the race weekend everybody is stressed, it's the last race, and today I got to be closer to the car and it was good for me to watch him doing stuff like getting out of the pits - easy stuff that it's easy to put in your head. After lunchtime, I was going for it more and to forget all this anxiousness and do it properly!
Q. So you are happy that you achieved your objectives for today?
AFDC: We did the programme that we had as planned and I'm happy.
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