Antonio Felix da Costa believes it was “100 percent” the right decision to leave the Porsche Formula E squad to join the FIA World Endurance Championship Hypercar field this year with Alpine, despite uncertainty surrounding his future.
Da Costa took five Formula E wins in a three-season spell with Porsche but opted to quit the German manufacturer at the conclusion of the 2024-25 campaign to join Jaguar, which also opened up the opportunity for him to compete in the top class of the WEC for the first time with a factory squad.
However, fewer than four months after being announced as an Alpine WEC driver, the French manufacturer revealed it would be departing the series at the end of the year.
Philippe Sinault, boss of the Signatech squad that runs the Alpine A424s, has subsequently been working on plans to keep the cars on the WEC grid into 2027.
Despite all of the uncertainty, da Costa is adamant that he made the right decision for the long-term by departing Porsche.
“I left with the goal of being able to combine the two programmes [WEC and FE] — I wasn’t able to do that there — so I took a brave decision to leave one of the biggest manufacturers in the world to pursue my own passion and obviously then this happened [Alpine’s departure], which was never the goal to be here just for a year so working on some options to stay here next year,” he told Sportscar365.
“I love to be thrown into the deep end and this season has just kept me on my toes so much with both programs.
“Meeting new people, new teams, new engineers, new teammates, new mechanics, doing that with two teams in one go [is a lot] but I needed that, I really did.
“When you do that and are having fun at the same time, that’s what I wake up and get out the bed for every day.”
The Portuguese driver admitted he was initially “a bit nervous” about returning to the Hypercar division after a partial program in a JOTA-run privateer Porsche 963 in 2023 but felt he was able to adapt quickly.
“It’s just now mastering all the endurance details like restarts on cold tires, strategy calls and stuff like that,” he said, having taken a best result so far this year of fourth.
Da Costa is one of four drivers to currently compete in both Formula E and the WEC and he has found that doing so has brought many advantages.
“I have to say I’m very lucky that Jaguar Racing understands how important racing in general is to me and to fulfil my passion,” he explained.
“Alpine this year understands that well so combining the two programs has actually been something beneficial to me as a racing driver.
“I’m so active, I’m driving a race car every other week, I’m in the sim, I’m learning technical things and crossing them over between the two programs so I really believe it’s a benefit to be in both championships.
“And this championship, the WEC cars are becoming so much more technological, so these hybrid systems they are actually a step back from what we’re doing in Formula E right now so there are a lot of technical things we can bring over.”
Da Costa added that his experience from both series is “hopefully a thing in my favor” to remain in the Hypercar ranks next year.
He said there are “some good options on the table” for him to continue in the WEC and is “confident I can make it happen.”
He currently sits sixth in the Formula E standings with an outside shot at the tile with one event remaining and has also relished his new environment in the all-electric championship, in which he was the 2019-20 champion.
“Already what I’ve been able to do this year — and don’t get me wrong, I loved Porsche — but I’m having such a great time at Jag, and I believe there’s performance in that too,” he said.
