Porsche‘s appeal over Antonio Felix da Costa‘s three-minute penalty from the first 2023 London E-Prix will go to court and change the results of the race, according to the driver.
Da Costa crossed the line in second place behind Mitch Evans after storming through the field from 17th, but was penalised for a technical infringement, which has been confirmed as being below the tyre pressures set by Hankook.
The Portuguese driver had a puncture, so was 0.5 bar under the 1.2 bar tyre pressure limit set by Hankook, so dropped to 16th place following the penalty.
Total-Motorsport.com can confirm Porsche gave notice of intention to appeal the decision and the team will confirm if or when they lodge an appeal to the International Court of Appeal (ICA) of the FIA.
“We are going to court with it,” Da Costa exclusively told Total-Motorsport.com. “I think it suspends all the classification because there’s 18 points hanging in the air for us.
“They mean a lot to us. For myself, I really want that second place because it was a hell of a race and we deserve it. We just deserve it. That’s it. It’s as simple as that.
“So I just want the common sense and the reason that we have human beings running as stewards is to not only go by the rulebook. We need to have the human side otherwise, we can have AI running.
“If it’s just about running a rulebook then we don’t need humans, so I hope that for the justice of the sport we get that back.”
What would change if Da Costa is reinstated to second?
Da Costa‘s penalty cost Porsche a realistic chance of winning the teams’ championship on Sunday. The German manufacturer ended up in fourth, behind customer outfit Andretti by 10 points.
This means Da Costa‘s 18 points from the first London race will move them to third in the standings and the Porsche driver himself will jump from ninth to fifth in the Formula E driver standings.
“For the first year with Porsche that would be a nice little achievement for me,” added Da Costa. “So there’s a lot of little things hanging in the air for us there and I really want that second place.”
