Antonio Felix Da Costa has confirmed his step away from the FIA World Endurance Championship for the 2024 season in a social media statement.
Former WEC LMP2 champion and JOTA Hypercar driver Da Costa will not return to the WEC next year.
The Portuguese driver has competed in the last five consecutive seasons, including this year when the JOTA Sport team made their step into the Hypercar class as a Porsche 963 customer team.
Having won the WEC LMP2 championship title in 2022, whereby he also won the Le Mans 24 Hours, Da Costa made the announcement via his Instagram social media.
“It’s with great sadness that I won’t be competing in the World Endurance Championship in 2024,” he said.
I remember when I first started in endurance and thinking ’24-hour races?’.
“Today [it] is one of my biggest passions. Having had the pleasure to work with a amazing teams, brands, manufacturers, and especially teammates.
“Team JOTA, thank you so much for all that you did in the my life and career, best time I’ve had on a race track.
“This is not a goodbye, just a see-you-later.”
The 2019-20 Formula E champion made his WEC debut during the Super-Season of 2018-19 for BMW Team MTEK in GTE-Pro, which aligned with his responsibilities as a BMW factory driver with a BMW Andretti Formula E drive as well.
In the following season, he drove for JOTA Sport for the first time in their Oreca 07 Gibson LMP2 and gained his first WEC win at the 4 Hours of Shanghai, one of five podium appearances during the 2019-20 campaign including a P2 (LMP2) finish at Le Mans.
With teammates Roberto Gonzalez and Will Stevens, the trio won Le Mans in LMP2 last year and rounded up the championship as class-title winners.
As a Porsche Formula E driver, his commitments are expected to sway towards the upcoming season after pre-season testing last week.
Meanwhile, JOTA has submitted a yet-to-be-approved application to run two drivers for two races in 2024, a year which will see Hypercar and LMGT3 make up the full-season WEC package.
Da Costa’s final race before his 2024 WEC step-away will be this Saturday’s 8 Hours of Bahrain in the JOTA Hypercar, after claiming an equal-best finish of sixth position at the previous Fuji race.
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