Formula E has seen two of its stalwarts retire at the end of Season 12, but Antonio Felix da Costa is evidently convinced he has plenty of longevity.
The all-electric championship bade farewell to two champions in the form of Sebastien Buemi and Lucas di Grassi, upon the conclusion of the end of the Gen3 era.
Drivers like Buemi and Di Grassi have been there since the very start, and their involvement in raising Formula E’s profile cannot be understated.
Da Costa joined them just one race later in Season 1, and like his Swiss and Brazilian counterparts, also has a championship to his name.
Sharing a language and a set of values, da Costa, speaking ahead of the Season 12 finale in London, had nothing but praise for di Grassi – the man dubbed ‘Mr Formula E’.
“It is a massive loss in many areas,” he told Motorsport Week in an exclusive interview.
“As a human, he’s a great human being, a family man, a man of faith. He has helped this championship in so many ways.
“The driver group, the team group, the series group. He is essentially driver number zero of this series.
“[But This is life. People retire, people get older, the new kids are coming. My time will come in a few years, I hope, not so soon. I’ve been racing Lucas here since Day Zero and that’s what I told him as well.
“I was a young driver looking up to him when I was in junior formulae. I’m glad that I got to share 12 years of racing with him. I’m so happy that he won a race this year to sign things off.”
Retirement not on the horizon for DAC
Da Costa turned 35 in the off-season, but has shown no signs of slowing with a season, that whilst didn’t yield a second championship, saw produce two stellar winning drives in Jeddah and Jarama respectively.
It helped cap, in many ways, a successful debut season with Jaguar, a team with which he will remain for Season 13, with a teammate to replace the Opel-bound Mitch Evans yet to be announced.
With Zane Maloney making a high-profile move to Nissan for his third season, and Felipe Drugovich continuing with Andretti for a second campaign, in comes Theo Pourchaire and Zak O’Sullivan as two rookies already signed up for the beginning of the Gen4 era.
It shows that more and more previous F2 and F3 drivers are now making the switch to Formula E, recognising its potential and growing stature in motorsport.
Da Costa is firmly one of the ‘old guard’ of Formula E, and turned 35 in the off-season. But when asked if he is thinking about his own retirement, there was a friendly rebuff of any such notion.
“No! You’ll see plenty of me,” he smiled.
“I am far from retiring – don’t worry!”
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