Why a brutal title defence can still yield another Formula E crown

We're thirteen races in and still a wide-open title battle wages in Formula E. Stitching together any kind of consistent run of form has been a rare commodity. As such, ahead of the season finale this weekend, there’s a dozen credible candidates that could be crowned the eventual champion.

Antonio Felix da Costa is just one of the 18 drivers who can, mathematically at least, emerge from the last double-header event of this bewildering 2021 season with the championship.

It’s a tough ask, even for a reigning champion, despite 60 points being up for grabs. He has two races in Berlin to overthrow a 15-point deficit to leader Nyck de Vries and, sitting fifth in the table, the Portuguese must navigate the punishing group one qualifying run on Saturday.

Progressing into the top-six superpole dogfight was the foundation of da Costa’s romp to the crown last year - and indeed the brace of titles won by DS Techeetah team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne over the preceding two seasons. Back then, da Costa overcame the handicap of extreme track evolution an unrivalled four times. Only once has he managed it this term.

Speaking to Autosport as he departs a final run in the simulator ahead of Berlin, da Costa explains: “If you carefully analyse and assume everyone will do a step forward for this year, given the regulations did not change, obviously people will have gotten closer.”

Antonio Felix Da Costa, DS Techeetah

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

That’s down to the static nature of generational rules cycle, with the Gen2 cars now serving their third term. It means the grid has converged to a degree where one second can split the top 18 cars in qualifying, as seen at Valencia, Monaco, Puebla, New York City and London.

Da Costa streaked to the 2020 crown with an unmatched hat-trick of wins across Marrakech and the first two Berlin races that capped off a superb first term at DS Techeetah. But this year has mimicked ‘second album syndrome’.

There has been the incredible high of Monaco - “We won the most-wanted race of the year”, da Costa says of his last-lap dive on Mitch Evans to secure victory as the full Grand Prix layout made its calendar debut - but there have been plenty of brutal lows too.

Two of those happened to rank among the very biggest shunts of da Costa’s career. In Mexico, while circulating in a point-less 18th, duelling cars ripped off a piece of advertising banner that enveloped and cooked his brakes, and he speared into the barrier. In London, an overly aggressive defensive sweep from Andre Lotterer again sent da Costa into the concrete to curtail a hasty rise from 22nd on the grid into the points-paying positions.

"It's one of my strong points that I minimise mistakes. It's something that I really put a lot of focus on, I make sure I don’t give my team any extra problems" Antonio Felix da Costa

A weekend in Rome, which marked the introduction of the new DS E-Tense FE21 car after the squad opted for a delayed homologation window, was stymied by technical issues that both team and driver remain tight-lipped about four months on. And da Costa had of course been leading the first Valencia race until the farcical energy woes - which the FIA inexplicably blamed on da Costa - hit almost the entire grid.

With da Costa retiring while de Vries went on to win in the rain in Spain, what should have been a seven-point gain on his Mercedes rival turned into a 25-point loss.

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“I'm not taking anything away from Nyck,” says da Costa. “The guy, he deserves to be leading right now, he did an amazing job. But if he wins the championship, that's where he won it. We would have scored some important points that day.”

Valencia farce turned a certain victory into disqualification as De Vries took full advantage

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

Those five lacklustre results have no doubt dinted da Costa’ title defence. But for the duration of this season, when rivals, sponsorship hoardings, the flawed regulations and reliability gremlins have conspired against him, the driver has scarcely put a foot wrong.

“I'm so glad you've taken the time and you analyse it that way, because I hate to be the one to talk about it because I don't want to blow smoke up my own ass,” says da Costa of his form. “It's one of my strong points that I minimise mistakes. It's something that I really put a lot of focus on, I make sure I don’t give my team any extra problems.

“We [as drivers] always put a lot of pressure on the teams for reliability on powertrain and cars, but I do a lot of work to make sure that I'm reliable as an athlete.”

Part of that personal reliability comes from how da Costa has kept his mind sharp this year. Like so many elite sport stars, he suffered the emotional dip after snaring the title last term. When so much effort and time is put into achieving a goal and then success duly arrives, the overnight mental drain is severe, as 23-time Olympic gold medallist Michael Phelps attests.

This year, da Costa has worked closely with a sports psychologist after he “really struggled” and “had no motivation” to pick up his training regime following his 2020 spoils. Now, he simply doesn’t entertain negative thoughts around his racing career, which has been of unexpected importance during a season when salaries at the Techeetah race team have gone unpaid.

Da Costa continues: “As I said from Valencia [pre-season testing], I told my management and the team's management that I didn't want to hear negativity anymore. I said, ‘You guys fix yourself’. All of that stuff is completely out of my head right now.”

While an announcement about resolutions to the team’s financial plight are expected to guarantee da Costa’s future in Formula E and kill off a potential full-time IndyCar switch, the positivity arrives only at the 11th hour of a gruelling run of double-header rounds that have flowed thick and fast amid hasty calendar shuffles to complete the season.

Antonio Felix da Costa, DS Techeetah

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

When the eventual schedule was signed off, Berlin retained its place as the finale. Tempelhof Airport was the site where da Costa bolted to the championship last season, snaring both poles and wins for the opening two races of the six-round showdown.

While returning to the abrasive concrete track in the German capital is a task that da Costa is relishing, he does not expect to enjoy a similar 0.4s advantage to that of 12 months ago. When asked if he took any comfort from knowing Berlin would again round out the season, da Costa tells Autosport: “It's a funny thing you say that because I didn't really see it that way. By the last two races last year, everyone was already super close, and we no longer had the edge on everyone.

"I am expecting everyone to catch up. Berlin is probably now the place where everyone has the most knowledge. So, if anything, things will be even more close and equal than ever" Antonio Felix da Costa

“We worked really well through the first quarantine phase, and we got there just a massive step ahead of everyone else. Then, you're racing against a lot of intelligent people. If you spend six days on the same track on the same surface, they will eventually get there.

“I am expecting everyone to catch up. Berlin is probably now the place where everyone has the most knowledge. So, if anything, things will be even more close and equal than ever.”

The first two races of that 2020 Berlin mini-series ran on a reversed track layout, which will again be employed for the second day of this double-header finale that features minimal modifications.

In a rare absence of Formula E curveballs, da Costa reckons: “Even through all the free practice phases, there will be less of figuring out this and that. I'm pretty sure we're going to hit the ground running with car set-up.

“The way I'm looking at Berlin right now, it's like I told my dad the other day before I left my house… I said, 'Man, this is going to be a freaking cool life experience’. Going into a final round of a championship fighting, having all the pressure, it's going to be awesome.'

Da Costa has good memories of Berlin after his brace last year earned the title

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

“I'm having a lot of fun on the build-up, and I consider myself super lucky to be in this position. To be able to go head-to-head with some of the best drivers in the world, I'm doing what I love.”

That’s a remarkably holistic approach for someone gripped in a title battle. But it speaks of a driver who has said he wants to remain in Formula E to become the enduringly successful electric equivalent of Lewis Hamilton.

Part of the comfort da Costa can find is in knowing that he returns to a circuit where he’s proved uber-successful and where there’s been very few changes to upset his form. It’s also the third season in a row where he enters the final weekend in contention for the title. That’s a record he’s immensely proud of and means he has the experience from which to gain composure this time around.

It’s not something that, for example, 2020 title rival and Jaguar Racing driver Mitch Evans can necessarily relate to in the context of Formula E. Tempelhof Airport has proved to be a bogey track for team and driver after the Kiwi’s very real championship challenge last year was decimated by car balance issues that went unresolved. Evans enters this year's finale eighth in the points, hoping the team has learned the errors of its ways as he seeks to capitalise from a group two qualifying position.

With the Berlin concrete set to be washed overnight, come the final day, track evolution will remain just as severe as Saturday despite the mileage that will have been completed. And what’s set to exacerbate the swing from each qualifying group to the next comes as a result of COVID.

The Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy support series was canned for 2021 amid the economic fallout of the pandemic. It used to run the same tyres as Formula E. Not only has that ‘free’ grip been lost in its absence, but the return of VIP laps as restrictions have eased now means the ‘wrong’ rubber compound will be smeared into the track to punish the early runners.

Da Costa continues: "Promotional laps with guests like we do now between FP2 and quali, that hurts the track a lot. With the I-Paces, essentially the track was fully clean when we went to quali last year, which is now not the case. So not only is everyone closer in terms of performance, but the track will be a little bit harder for group one.”

Track cleaning overnight will mean top six championship contenders are again disadvantaged come race two

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images

If da Costa can replicate his mistake-free form shown so far in 2021 and use his Berlin prowess to mitigate the damage of the contrived qualifying system, then a second title is eminently within his grasp. Equally, another punishment for racing in the midfield might lie in wait and he could finish in the lower reaches of the top 10. That’s reflective of this topsy-turvy season that is yet to produce a clear narrative, a plot for viewers to properly invest in.

But drivers never like to focus on the bigger championship picture until the chequered flag has waved for the last time anyway. That’s why da Costa and his crew are just homing in on the immediate challenge that has been presented.

"I have told the team, ‘Let's go out there and do what we do for fun’. We're not going there overconfident. We're going there knowing there is a big task in front of us" Antonio Felix da Costa

He concludes: “It was great to sit in the sim for Berlin. It brought a lot of cool memories, driving these two layouts that really made me win the championship last year. But we do have to put all that behind us. It's probably the toughest fight. We need to get everything right, there will be a lot of pressure on us.

“I have told the team, ‘Let's go out there and do what we do for fun’. We're not going there overconfident. We're going there knowing there is a big task in front of us. Everyone is well aware of what each person needs to do to make sure that we at least give this a proper crack.”

Antonio Felix da Costa, DS Techeetah, DS E-Tense FE21

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images