Chance to pair WEC with Formula E key to Jaguar move for da Costa

Antonio Felix da Costa said that the ability to have a full-time World Endurance Championship ride alongside his Formula E commitments was a key part of his decision to move from Porsche to Jaguar in the all-electric series.

During his last three seasons with the Porsche factory team in Formula E, da Costa competed with Jota in for most of 2023 when it ran customer 963s, but didn't make a single sports car start in 2024 and raced in the LMP2 category in the Daytona and Le Mans 24-hour races this year.

Porsche has veered away from letting its Formula E drivers having full-time sports car commitments, as former teammate Pascal Wehrlein only made one-off starts at Daytona and Le Mans this year with customer team JDC–Miller MotorSports and the factory Porsche Penske Motorsport outfit respectively, and da Costa suggested that was a reason for some of his frustrations while driving for the brand.

“I've been doing WEC for eight years: GT, LMP2 – won it in LMP2 – and then I got a sniff of Hypercar with Porsche and Jota. We got the car halfway through a season, and we had no testing, and then the rug was pulled from underneath me,” he said. “That left me in a tough place, to be honest. That was the beginning of the head butts with Porsche, if we can use that expression.”

Aside from JLR sister brand Defender competing in the World Rally-Raid Championship and Dakar Rally, Jaguar doesn’t have programs in other series outside of Formula E, meaning da Costa had to look elsewhere to scratch his sports car itch. It was something that Jaguar and his new sports car employer Alpine were happy to facilitate.

“I thought wherever I'm going, I have that demand that I want to do both championships,” he said. “I was coming from a really heavy environment and when I spoke with Jaguar, they were like, ‘If you want to do it, we're happy and we'll help you do it.’ And the same with Alpine. They want to be aligned and make sure everybody works well together. They are sharing a driver in the end, so it's just been a completely new mindset for the better that I was really needing.”

Another benefit has been the avoidance of clashes between Formula E and WEC for the upcoming season, something that has been a regular headache for a number of drivers since the electric series’ third campaign.

For the last two seasons, Formula E’s Berlin weekend has been affected, with Robin Frijns, Sebastien Buemi, Nico Mueller and Nyck de Vries all missing the doubleheader in the German capital in 2024, and de Vries and Norman Nato both missing it this year. From the current Formula E grid, at least Nato, Buemi, de Vries, Jean-Eric Vergne and Nick Cassidy are all likely to have WEC commitments alongside their Formula E duties in 2026.

“Formula E and WEC have been doing a great [job to avoid clashes],” said da Costa. “There's a few of us doing it, so it's in the interest of everybody to not have clashes. So that's a great thing.”