Autosport 2021 Top 50: #17 Antonio Felix da Costa

Despite falling to eighth in the Formula E standings, it was a title defence almost without mistake from Antonio Felix da Costa. He was the innocent party in collisions and blameless when car components failed.

But his fall from third in 2020 to 17th in this list reflects the decline in Formula E’s stature after a clumsy term, and an absence of the one-lap heroics he used to overcome the group qualifying format to claim three poles last year.

The Portuguese did, however, shine brightly in the WEC, with that Le Mans qualifying lap for LMP2 pole (by half a second) impressing most of all.

The “super special” qualifying lap that underlines Da Costa’s progression

The measure of a great endurance racer is not their 30 best laps, but rather their 30 worst. Finding a tenth of a second counts for little if tens of seconds are lost in traffic or searching for consistency. Antonio Felix da Costa recognises this as he aims for a factory hypercar drive.

But almost inevitably for its quality, discussion soon turns to his 8.5-mile tour of the Circuit de la Sarthe in late August. There, he delivered the finest one-shot performance of his year as he guided the JOTA LMP2 machine to class pole.

For the Top 50, naturally only a driver’s contribution from the past 12 months is considered. But for the Portuguese, it’s impossible to view his Le Mans 24 Hours effort in isolation.

Da Costa knocked the LMP2 field for six at Le Mans, where he qualified on pole by half a second

Photo by: Nick Dungan / Motorsport Images

Da Costa tells Autosport: “It's funny how now that I'm getting older, I can realise how I'm going through different stages of my driving in my career. As I joined WEC the year before, I wasn't bad, but I wasn't amazing. I had team-mates that were a little bit better in some areas. I could see it, but it was hard to implement [improvements].”

That, he says, was down to a jampacked calendar full of clashes that deprived him of dedicated test days as he graduated from GT to prototype endurance machinery.

Despite never having watched a replay, da Costa continues: “That Le Mans pole lap was super special. I got my ass kicked there last year by a mile when we were on different tyres [Goodyears versus the majority on Michelins]. And this year almost everyone was in the same [ORECA-Gibson 07] car and same Goodyears. So, I really wanted to do it. My car was fucking good. The balance was something you don't get a lot of times in your career.”

Da Costa takes equal pride in what he could accomplish when the racing line was more congested. He says: “My end stints in both Bahrain races and Portimao were mega because I was racing people with a lot of talent who had exactly the same equipment. To get overtakes done, it comes down to the mind when we're only a tenth different on pace. 'How can I pass this guy?' You have to get super creative.”