Porsche lodges appeal over da Costa's Misano Formula E disqualification

Da Costa claimed his first win of the season on Formula E’s inaugural visit to the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli last weekend.

The Portuguese driver scored his first victory since the Cape Town E-Prix last season having passed Nissan’s Oliver Rowland three laps from the end of a chaotic race which included 19 changes for the lead across 28 laps.

PLUS: How Porsche won, lost and won again at Misano

But several hours after the race, da Costa was stripped of his victory after scrutineers found an ineligible throttle damper setting related to the spring was fitted to his car.

The part in question had been previously used on the Gen2 machines but its inclusion in the “GEN3 Spark Catalogue” was removed when the new car was introduced for the 2022-23 season.

Porsche admitted that the spring had been used since the start of the Gen3 era as only the addition of new parts were highlighted in the catalogue, not if they had been removed.

Immediately following the disqualification, Porsche lodged an intent to appeal giving the German manufacturer 96 hours to decided whether to pursue the matter.

On Wednesday just before the deadline, a statement read: “We can confirm that Porsche lodged an appeal against the decision #31 by the Stewards relating to the 2024 FIA Formula E Misano E-Prix, 13 April 2024.”

Antonio Felix da Costa, Porsche, Porsche 99X Electric Gen3

Antonio Felix da Costa, Porsche, Porsche 99X Electric Gen3

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Prior to his win on the road, Da Costa had suffered a difficult start to the 2024 season, failing to score points in the opening three races before finishing in the points in Sao Paulo and Tokyo.

His place in the Porsche team came under scrutiny after it was revealed that Abt’s Nico Muller had tested with the German manufacturer earlier this month as a possible replacement to da Costa next season.

In the wake of his disqualification, and prior to the second Misano E-Prix where he was classified 17th after pitting for a new front wing after it was damaged, da Costa claimed the “winning feeling” remained.

“It is what it is, it’s a massive blow in our championship because those 25 points were going to definitely going to put us back in contention and now makes our life a little bit harder,” he told TNT Sports.

“But we go race by race and the positive thing is we’ve done it on track and everyone saw it.

“The winning feeling and accomplishment feeling is not going away.”