Porsche Wants Da Costa to Focus “100 Percent” on Formula E

Photo: Porsche

Head of Porsche Motorsport Thomas Laudenbach has addressed Antonio Felix da Costa’s shift away from the FIA World Endurance Championship for next year, confirming Porsche’s decision for the Portuguese driver to focus “100 percent” on the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

The sports car racing star revealed earlier this week that he will depart Hertz Team JOTA following this weekend’s 8 Hours of Bahrain to fully concentrate on his duties in the all-electric championship, where he serves as a Porsche factory driver.

It came after a season where da Costa finished ninth in the 2022-23 Formula E standings, with a single win in Cape Town to his credit, while teammate Pascal Wehrlein picked up three wins en route to a fourth place result in the championship.

Sportscar365 understands that both drivers are now not allowed to contest others races during the Formula E season in order to put their complete focus on the championship, which was won by Jake Dennis in a customer Porsche entry.

“The expectation is that we win races and championships,” Laudenbach told reporters Friday in Bahrain.

“When we look at Formula E, we were progressing quite well this year. I think it was the strongest Formula E season ever. But in the end, we didn’t 100 percent get it right.

“If you don’t get it right 100 percent, because 100 percent would be besides that Jake Dennis won in a Porsche… Of course, we would have loved to win the teams’ championship. Maybe even, in the future, manufacturers’ championship.

“As long as there is room for improvement, we need to look at everything.

“What we do in any series [is] we sit together, look at the points and go through every race. We write down where we made mistakes [and so on].

“A very clear point is quali performance. One of the things you can do is give the driver the possibility to focus 100 percent on one main job. That is what we did.”

When asked by Sportscar365 if da Costa would be able to contest the 24 Hours of Le Mans as a one-off WEC outing, Laudenbach said: “I think we made it very clear.”

“Throughout the Formula E season, we want him to concentrate on one thing. If the Formula E season stops before Le Mans, we can talk about it,” he added.

“Again, to explain it, Antonio is a great racing driver and a great guy. I love this man.

“But again, this is professional racing and the only thing that counts is results, in the end.

“At least, for the upcoming season, we want to go down the route that gives both drivers the possibility to focus 100 percent on the main job. That’s it.

“That’s a decision for next year, and then we’ll see.”

Laudenbach added that a high level of focus must be put into Formula E.

The German manufacturer has previously made other driver-related decisions in the series before, like requiring Andre Lotterer, an an Andretti driver, to skip the Jakarta round that clashed with the Le Mans test day this year.

“If you lead for most of the season, as a driver and a team, you want to win it,” Laudenbach said. “It’s a tough championship, don’t get me wrong. It is so close.

“It was a good year. But clearly, like we said earlier, we always head for P1. We didn’t make P1 with the team. So the goal is clear.

“That’s standard procedure – we think, how can we improve? If it’s engineering, technical, operation-wise, strategy. Whatever it is, you have to look into every little corner and that’s what we do.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John