Porsche is currently deliberating on who will replace Antonio Felix da Costa at its team next season. The decision is believed to be close with Nico Mueller a clear favourite, although certainly not the only candidate.
The Race revealed earlier this week that da Costa is set to leave the team. His trials and tribulations, as well as some very memorable and successful days have been well documented.
Da Costa and his now former teammate Pascal Wehrlein have had a curious relationship. It started relatively normally but soon cooled. There were tensions in 2024 but Wehrlein’s title, which da Costa certainly aided by taking points off Jaguar’s pairing, kind of masked any ill-feeling.
Then at Sao Paulo in December 2024 the two had a mystery disagreement, again revealed by The Race, which saw the two barely communicate through the duration of the season. The coolness between them was palpable.
But little was actually said publicly about one in which da Costa was on the whole a victim. FP1 at Berlin last month.
The team chose to handle the situation internally and from what Formula E Notebook hears quite subtly too. There were no big confrontations between the drivers and no stand-up rants. It was said to be a mix of resignation and indignation.
The embarrassing situation was caught fully by the cameras, as was the run-up to it. And while some prior to the incident communications didn’t seem to stick completely in terms of who was doing what in regard to fast laps, it seemed clear that Wehrlein by contacting the back of his teammate’s car bore the majority of the blame.
“We saw until this incident always hard but fair fights. In this incident you need to see what happened and for me again (it was) unacceptable that two teammates touch,” Porsche Director of Factory Motorsport for Formula E, Florian Modlinger told FEN at the London EPrix last month.
“It is unacceptable as a team principle and as a team (to see) because all the people who work there, the mechanics, the engineers. It’s unacceptable because it’s additional work, additional cost cap things.”
Modlinger was tight-lipped on the incident immediately after it occurred and chose his words carefully. Two weeks later, at London, he was a bit more expansive on the cause and the effect of the misunderstanding.
“What happened there was that both went to a quick lap,” he added, “One car in a 350kW (Wehrlein). One in a 300kW (da Costa). And in a prep lap they were both briefed what the programme of the other car is.
“In the last corner they changed position. Antonio was in front with not a good exit because of this position change. And Pascal approaching with 350kW.
Then clearly there were two steps. One a misunderstanding. And one clear mistake and misjudgment of Pascal. He could have avoided the contact because he was the car in the back.
“But the first misunderstanding was in this ideal line. You go from the inside, you move a bit outside, and Antonio wanted to be kind and stayed inside and let Pascal go around. But Pascal thought he will go to the ideal line, and he can cut through. This means one misunderstanding.
“But then it was clear from Pascal the mistake and the misjudgment. Because with the overshoot he had, he did not lift early enough. He lifted but far too late and then they made contact. And this last bit I cannot accept. Especially in FP1.”
In Porsche’s mind, as with other teams, was the fact that the first race at Berlin was highly likely to be weather affected. This undoubtably had a bearing on how the incident manifested.
“We knew the next day the weather situation will be tricky. That FP1 could be already the starting grid. If FP2 and qualifying is cancelled. We had several times this year. Due to rain conditions. But to take this risk and not being sure that the teammate is moving and to lift too late. Not acceptable and a clear mistake.
“We tackled it internally; we spoke to the drivers and made our position clear.”
Some hypothesized that this incident may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back in terms of da Costa’s future with the team. We’ll maybe never know but the feeling was that in fact even prior to this incident da Costa had internally made up his mind of wanting to leave anyway.
It is likely the Berlin incident was more of an underlining of the situation he appeared to want to get out of, with regards to continuing with the team.
The great irony of course is that over the course of 12 months da Costa played a key part in three title successes and Porsche enjoyed, so far, its most successful period ever in Formula E.
