Antonio Felix da Costa: Formula E Champion, Macau Double Winner and WEC Driver

Antonio Felix da Costa, a Portuguese driver, has competed in Formula E and in the FIA World Endurance Championship. He won the 2019-20 Formula E title with DS Techeetah, took two Macau Grand Prix victories and returned to the WEC with Alpine in 2026.

Who is Antonio Felix da Costa?

Antonio Maria de Mello Breyner Felix da Costa was born on 31 August 1991 in Cascais, Portugal. He started karting at nine, moved into single-seaters in 2008 and has spent most of his professional life in Formula E and sportscar racing. He is also a former member of the Red Bull junior programme.

Away from the track he speaks five languages, and his older half-brother Duarte races too. Duarte competes mainly in touring car and sports car events, and he also acts as Antonio's manager.

A Portuguese driver who won Formula E's biggest prize, took two Macau victories and still found a place in endurance racing.

How did his karting and single-seater career start?

Felix da Costa began karting at nine and won the Portuguese Cadet title in 2002. He became a factory driver for Tony Kart in 2007, then stepped up to Formula Renault in 2008. That year he was runner-up in the Northern European Cup, 86 points behind Valtteri Bottas.

In 2009 he dominated the Northern European Cup and clinched the title at the Nurburgring. In the Eurocup he won the first race at the new Ciudad del Motor de Aragon circuit from his first series pole, and he set the fastest lap. His campaign was otherwise consistent, but he lost second place in the standings to Jean-Eric Vergne on a tie-break.

He also raced for A1 Team Portugal as a rookie in the 2008-09 A1 Grand Prix season, which gave him an early taste of national team competition. On his NEC debut at Hockenheim he finished third after starting third.

What was his Formula Three and Macau record?

He joined the Formula 3 Euro Series in 2010 with Motopark Academy and won at the Nurburgring, a first for a Portuguese driver in that series. He then won the Macau Grand Prix in 2012, the first Portuguese winner of the event since Eduardo de Carvalho in 1954. He added a second Macau win in 2016, which came later in his career and extended his record at the event.

In his first Euro Series season he finished seventh overall and was the top-placed rookie. In 2012 he qualified on pole for the Macau main race after setting the fastest time in the first qualifying session. He led from start to finish, and he left the rest of the field well behind.

His debut Euro Series season included a point at Le Castellet and a pole position for the second race through the series' reverse-grid system. After the Nurburgring win he took further victories at Zandvoort and Brands Hatch, where he started both Sunday races from pole after finishing eighth on the Saturdays.

He also finished third at Oschersleben, and at the close of the season he made his first Macau appearance, driving for Carlin. Starting from 13th fastest in qualifying, he progressed to sixth in the main race. Before Macau he had taken part in a Formula One Young Drivers' Test for Force India in Abu Dhabi.

For the 2012 Macau race, the rules required competition in a Formula Three championship round that year, so he raced in the MotorSport Vision Formula Three Cup at Snetterton. He won both races comfortably, by almost a minute and almost forty seconds.

His 2011 Macau weekend was less successful. He rejoined Hitech Racing for the event, started from the front row of the qualifying race and then suffered a stall at the start and a wheel problem in the main race.

How did his GP3 and Formula Renault 3.5 years go?

He competed in GP3 from 2010, finishing 26th in the championship in his first season with Carlin. For 2011 he switched to Status Grand Prix full-time, and his first GP3 victory came in the closing race, where he held Rio Haryanto off by 0.7 seconds.

His 2012 GP3 season was his strongest. Back with Carlin in 2012, he became the first GP3 driver to take both races in one weekend, at the Hungaroring. He finished third in the final standings, having won that weekend and taken other podiums along the way.

The 2011 season was a mixed one. After fifth and fourth places at Istanbul Park, he went nine races without a points finish before a sixth place at the Hungaroring broke the run. He finished 13th overall and also contested the non-championship GP2 Final for Ocean Racing Technology.

He also joined the Red Bull Junior Team in 2012 and raced for Arden Caterham in Formula Renault 3.5. He won four of the last five races that season, finished fourth overall with 166 points and topped the Red Bull test times in Abu Dhabi on the second day.

Unable to secure a Formula One drive, he joined the new Formula E series for its 2014-15 season.

How did his DTM and Formula E careers take shape?

He was a BMW factory driver in the DTM from 2014 to 2016. His first podium came at Zandvoort in 2015, and he won the second race of that weekend for his first DTM victory. He ended that season eleventh overall. In that first Formula E season he picked events that avoided his DTM dates.

In Formula E he began with Team Aguri in the inaugural 2014-15 season, fitting the races around his DTM commitments. He won the 2015 Buenos Aires ePrix, which was his only win of that season. He then moved to Andretti for the 2016-17 to 2018-19 seasons. He had announced the switch in July 2016, and he was confirmed alongside Robin Frijns. He won the 2018 Ad Diriyah ePrix from pole.

In his debut Formula E season he raced alongside Katherine Legge and Salvador Duran, and he came through from eighth to take the Buenos Aires ePrix. After that race his only non-points finish came at Berlin, where he was eleventh. He finished eighth in the standings with 51 points.

Back at Aguri for 2015-16, he kept his seat alongside Nathanael Berthon, Salvador Duran and Ma Qinghua, although the line-up changed several times. Unreliability cost him several good results. His best finish was sixth, a result he reached three times, and at the 2015 Beijing ePrix a mechanical failure ended a race in which he was running on the podium.

At Long Beach in 2016 he took a strong pole position, but he was disqualified because his right rear tyre pressure was a small margin below the minimum. At London he finished fourth, only for penalties to drop him to 11th. His 2018-19 season with Andretti opened with a pole and a win at Ad Diriyah, and at Marrakesh he was leading before a clash with teammate Alexander Sims ended his race.

In 2019 he joined DS Techeetah, the 2018-19 teams' champion, to partner Jean-Eric Vergne. He finished second at Santiago behind Maximilian Gunther and second again at Mexico behind Mitch Evans, before taking his first win for the team at Marrakesh.

What did the 2019-20 Formula E title involve?

The 2019-20 season ended with Felix da Costa as drivers' champion, 71 points clear of DS Techeetah team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne. The team also won the constructors' title with two races remaining, a clear sign of a strong package.

The season was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and when racing resumed in Berlin he put together a string of dominant performances. In Berlin he took two victories and one podium, which sealed the drivers' title. At Marrakesh his winning margin was 11.427 seconds, the third-largest in Formula E history.

He received the Order of Merit from Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa for the achievement. The honour was dated 3 September 2020.

How did he move through Porsche and Jaguar?

After three seasons at DS Techeetah, he joined TAG Heuer Porsche for 2022-23, replacing Andre Lotterer and partnering Pascal Wehrlein. The first events were a struggle, with one points finish across the opening two rounds, but he recovered with third place in Hyderabad.

His first victory with Porsche came in Cape Town, where he made a string of passes on Nick Cassidy and Jean-Eric Vergne at the tight Turn 7. In 2023-24 he scored five on-track wins in the second half of the season, including both rounds of the Portland ePrix.

Porsche and Felix da Costa parted ways after the 2024-25 season, his third with the team and again alongside Pascal Wehrlein. He joined Jaguar Racing for 2025-26, alongside Mitch Evans.

What was his endurance racing record?

Beyond Formula E he drove in the LMGTE Pro category of the WEC during 2018 and 2019, after his DTM years. He raced three seasons in LMP2 for Jota, and the 2022 class title followed. He moved up to Hypercar in 2023 and returned to the WEC in 2026 with the Alpine Endurance Team. That return came while he remained a Formula E driver, with his Jaguar seat in the same period.