Antonio Felix DaCosta celebrated his first win of the new season. formula e spent his season on the weekend and his breathless passages Cape Town to be completely “in the zone” at a crucial time.
This Porsche The driver made two incredible passes and stepped aside to seal the lead in the closing stages of the race. Jean-Eric Vergne take the top spot on the podium and move up to fourth place in the overall drivers standings.
The chaotic period of the season is now giving way to a one-month reunion, and FE, Da Costa – or DAC as it is known around the track – is heading to Brazil and Sao Paulo, pleased with the respite it has given to overcome the illness. Be fresh for the sixth round.
Indeed, the earlier arrival in South Africa brought a sense of calm that contributed to the mood that Da Costa felt was necessary after starting a tough life in his new team.
“I arrived in Cape Town on a Monday afternoon and felt a few vibrations at my home in Portugal as if I were next to the ocean. This buildup has been very good for me after nonstop travel,” he said. Independent in a media interview. “Maybe it played a part in the good weekend. The questions started to get a little annoying and started to take effect: ‘Why is (Teammate) Pascal (Wehrlein) winning, why don’t you?’ Made it more emotional.
“I was in the zone, the adrenaline got me into doing those things (on the transitions). I just watched back the last day. It felt natural back then but looking back now maybe I should have been a little more careful!
“It was very close to the wall. But I believe it had to happen when the stars were aligned. I’m not a big crasher but this was pretty close. I did the move with less energy (in the car) and paid for it on the last lap, I had to manage that energy.”
It did, and the Hyderabad winner stopped the JEV to run all five races where Porsche had a driver on the podium.
While Saudi Arabia’s double win was a rough weekend for the DAC, it otherwise impressed in the early months with its new team.
This is especially so considering that not only is a new environment connected, but also many unusual challenges, including the Gen3 car and a succession of brand new tracks.
And as he said Independent, the list of obstacles to overcome is never ending; Just as he begins to grasp a subject, another raises his head when it comes to identifying and preparing new venues for the race.
(Carl Bingham / LAT Images)
“It makes it hard for someone like me to join a new team; When you get on top of something I’m struggling with, something else comes along, be it changing driving style or something else.
“It’s a constant challenge, on the engineering side there’s a to-do list, on the software side, you fix something and the next race and then it starts over.”
“Then you learn new tracks, you need good fundamentals in the simulator, and that doesn’t always give you enough time. But that’s what happened and I don’t make excuses. I’m happy to be able to give my speech on the track.
“I’m still not where I want to be, but there are some good signs that we’re moving in the right direction.”
The current direction of the pilot, who collected 40 points in the last two races in new cities, is quite up. If he can repeat that trick at another new location in Brazil in late March next time, Porsche will be extremely confident about their chances of fighting for two-on-one in the championship this season.