Jaguar powertrains have dominated the final three races within the all-electric championship, with Mitch Evans profitable twice for the British marque and buyer workforce Envision taking victory final trip in Berlin courtesy of Nick Cassidy.
It’s signified a giant turnaround within the championship battle, as Porsche hit the bottom operating with the new-for-2023 Gen3 vehicles, profitable 4 of the primary 5 races with its drivers Pascal Wehrlein and da Costa, in addition to Jake Dennis for buyer squad Andretti Autosport.
Whereas Wehrlein and Porsche nonetheless lead each the drivers’ and groups’ championships by 4 and 15 factors respectively, da Costa believes the menace from Jaguar has been there because the very begin of the season.
“I believe we’ve most likely equalled out now, however I’ve to say, they’ve all the time been sturdy,” stated da Costa, who sits 32 factors behind Wehrlein within the standings forward of the Monaco E-Prix this weekend.
“They simply haven’t executed the right begin of the yr, kind of the beginning of the yr I’ve had towards Pascal.
“I don’t suppose they abruptly appeared, they’ve all the time been there. Now clearly they’ve received their stuff collectively and all 4 vehicles are executing unbelievable outcomes.
“For certain, [it’s] very tight and [they’re] powerful opponents nevertheless it’s good to have that. Everybody within the workforce is feeling how exhausting we need to win it and it retains everybody sincere and motivated.”
Antonio Felix da Costa, Porsche
Photograph by: Andreas Beil
A weak level of the Porsche has been the automotive’s one-lap tempo, with each da Costa and Wehrlein lacking out on the qualifying duels at varied factors this season.
However whereas that is an space that da Costa admits each he and the workforce have to work on, he has no doubts concerning the efficiency of the automotive within the race.
“I am nonetheless very assured that we’ve a really sturdy automotive in race trim,” added da Costa.
“Qualifying it’s a bit on me, a bit on the boldness I’ve with the brakes.
“I simply can’t maximise what I’ve in the intervening time and we’re working in the direction of that, and I believe as soon as we do this and we’re capable of begin each race within the prime six, it’s going to make our life lots simpler for ourselves.”