How an overlooked F1 talent found his true calling

By:

Matt Kew

Aug 11, 2020, 3:33 PM

Formula E's six-race Berlin finale was billed as the most intense in motorsport history, and expected to go down to the wire in true FE style. But it was decided two races early, for the first time ever, as one driver showed his F1 rejection hadn't defined him

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Whatever Antonio Felix da Costa does for the rest of his career, even in retirement - if he's ever called upon to open a local supermarket or switch on the Christmas lights - he will now always be introduced as a Formula E champion.

In the five previous seasons of FE, no one had ever won the title with two rounds to spare, but da Costa did. A trio of consecutive pole positions preceded three largely unchallenged victories, split across Marrakech and in Berlin last week. That's a fine return for a driver who was overlooked by Formula 1 and whose junior career was typified by the word 'nearly'.

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Matt Kew

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Matt Kew is Autosport’s F1 Editor, a role he has held since March 2022 following stints covering Formula E, Extreme E and the British Touring Car Championship.

Matt joined Autosport in 2018 to work predominantly on the magazine, but his relentless quoting of Alan Partridge meant office colleagues soon thought he would be better-suited to increased field work.

Needless to say, Matt had the last laugh when he won the Motorsport UK Young Journalist of the Year Award in 2019.

His interest in motorsport was sparked by regular trips to watch ASCAR crash around Rockingham’s banked oval.

Matt read politics and philosophy at the University of Sheffield - receiving first-class honours for his dissertation assessing the lack of female participation in top-tier motor racing.

He covered a wide variety of national race and rally meetings for Autosport as a freelancer before joining full-time. His best efforts to argue the merits of historic racing are undone by a questionable taste in music and James Bond actors.