Antonio Felix da Costa used to be a regular on the entry list for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but he was missing out last year, since Porsche prioritized his Formula E gig over the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Racing24-7.net caught up with the always honest and passionate Portuguese driver, earlier in the week.
Good to see you back here again. It’s a shame you weren’t here last year, but you have still been performing well in the other job you have. Are you looking forward to the race, and being in a competitive car?
“100 percent, yeah! That’s always the goal is, you know. I really appreciate getting the call from Francois and AF Corse, to come and do this race. These guys won this race last year, so good indications going forward. And yeah, and as for me, you know, such an historical race, such a lot of passion, a lot of history here. I’ve won this race three years ago. And two years ago I was here in a Hypercar and, you know, it really sucked to miss the race last year. It was something out of my control. So yeah, happy to be back this year and yeah, I can’t wait.”
Photo: JJ Media
I suppose there is some setup differences and philosophies from team to team, from what you are used to?
“I think these guys have been doing a good job in LMP2 for a few years now, so it’s more me getting adapted to them. I don’t want to arrive and change anything. I think they have the recipe to win, so it’s just more about me getting warmed up, and doing the job later. ”
“The last year with JOTA I was in that Porsche Hypercar and that is a complex car, you know, so this just makes it a little bit easier and yeah, that’s it.”
Antonio Felix da Costa shares AF Corse #183 with Francois Perrodo and Matthieu Vaxiviere, with Perrodo being the defending winner of the race. Vaxiviere was running the Alpine Endurance Team Hypercar last year, before being demoted to reserve driver for this year. But that left him the option to do this race, just like he is doing the full European Le Mans Season alongside Perrodo.
The team was 9th and 5th respectively during the two Sunday test sessions, being 5th and 3rd in LMP2 Pro/Am respectively. The Pro/Am part of the category, is for all the teams running a Bronze rated driver in the car. They are going to be awarded at their own podium ceremony on Sunday afternoon, although all the LMP2 cars are running as one big group on the timing screens, and the color coding on the cars, which is different to the ELMS, where each class has their own color code.
