Formula E: Porsche Appeals da Costa's Disqualification from Misano E-Prix
Porsche's Da Costa's Formula E victory was short-lived in Misano, as officials nullified his victory after finding an invalid throttle damper.
By Divyam Dubey
The Porsche Formula E team is getting ready to argue Antonio Felix da Costa's disqualification from the first race in Misano so that he can reclaim the win he got in round 6 in the Misano E-Prix. Even though da Costa's future with the team is unclear, he won the race on Saturday by charging from thirteenth place on the grid. However, his victory was short-lived as officials found a technical error hours later, leading to its dismissal. Officials reviewed the situation and discovered that Porsche had employed an illegal throttle damper spring, resulting in the nullification of their victory. At first, Porsche said that they had been using the same part since the Gen3 car came out last season, but they later admitted that it wasn't one of the allowed parts.
Before getting a race win in Misano, da Costa had a rough start to the 2024 season, as he didn't get any points in the first three races. On top of the doubt about his role in the Porsche team, Nico Müller, who is currently with Abt, tested with Porsche earlier this month. This made people wonder about Da Costa's future with the team.
Formula E: What was The Technical infringement?
Da Costa's triumph was short-lived, as race officials swiftly nullified his victory upon uncovering an invalid throttle damper. Porsche responded by stating that they had not changed this part of da Costa's Porsche since Gen3 debuted in 2023. Specifically, the part in question was a spec part from Spark Racing Technologies, and SRT's official parts catalogue shows that it had been illegal for a while during the Gen3 timeframe.
The team continued to use it in 2023 and 2024 because the officials did not inform them about the change. Pascal Wehrlein, da Costa's teammate at Porsche, was also found guilty at Misano but managed to avoid punishment.
It's getting harder for Porsche to work with Formula E officials after this event. Three years ago, Wehrlein suffered his first Formula E race loss in Puebla due to the team's fine for an administrative mistake in distributing race tyres. Despite Porsche's appeal, the International Court of Appeal upheld the decision.
