The race could reveal that Formula E driver Antonio Felix da Costa will stay with Porsche after all, as a turbulent period of negotiations between the team and driver ended this week in favour of continuity.
Da Costa, who has won the last three Formula E races and four of the last five, will remain alongside Pascal Wehrlein for the third season in a row.
This decision comes despite strained relations with some elements of the senior leadership team for much of the season and several twists and turns in negotiations recently.
This began last fall when da Costa was informed that he would not be able to continue racing in both Formula E and the World Endurance Championship. Da Costa has done so consistently since 2018 for BMW MTEK and Jota in the World Endurance Championship, achieving success in the LMP2 title and a class victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours for Jota in 2022.
Da Costa continues this dual programme in 2023, his first year as a Porsche factory driver in Formula E, with the Jota team which by then has become Porsche's customer team in the WEC Hypercar class.
Plans for da Costa to continue with Jota were in place for 2024, but Porsche essentially shelved them last fall. There was thought to be a chance for him to race in the WEC with Jota again in 2025, but that has now been halted by the decision to stay with Porsche.
While da Costa is likely to have attracted interest from other manufacturers in the World Endurance Championship, his recent success in Formula E and some reconciliation with Porsche appear to have led to an agreement to continue his contract until the end of the 2024-25 season.
The 2020 champion would also have received multiple offers from rival Formula E teams had he planned to move away from Porsche, which would have allowed him to complete a double programme again next season.
The Race understands there was a point in recent weeks when it looked like Da Costa and Porsche were on the verge of splitting but a last-minute solution was reached to save the relationship.
Things had deteriorated earlier in the year to the point where Porsche tested Nico Müller after the first three races of the season, by which point da Costa had no points and his poor qualifying form was a known concern for Porsche.
But his transformation in the second half of the season has been remarkable; da Costa's last four wins have lifted him to fourth in the drivers' championship, and he heads into the season-ending two-round race in London later this month with little chance of a second title (although team-mate Wehrlein is joint second overall).
Official confirmation of Porsche's stable line-up for next season is expected after the season finale at the London Excel show later this month.
The race says
The meticulous arrangements and detailed negotiations that have taken place in recent days and weeks in the Formula E driver market will one day be read as a stunning testimony to a multifaceted, and at times frenetic, scenario in which António Félix da Costa and Porsche played a complex and vital role.
This role is now over.
But conversely, the ripple effects of this crisis will create new narratives of multiple moves at other teams including Envision, Maserati MSG, Nissan, DS Penske and Andretti. McLaren, Abt Cobra and ART are also likely to see impacts in what is now a sort of second-tier market move.
But had da Costa moved from Porsche the chaos would have been even greater, with drivers scattered in their quest for a place on the 22-car grid for the new season which starts later this year in Sao Paulo.
The Da Costa saga is over, at least on one level. How do we look at it now?
On the other hand, Porsche is likely to portray a “nothing to see here” narrative – that it was always going to be stable – when it confirms its drivers for 2025.
By definition, this is both true and false at the same time.
Yes, da Costa is under contract until 2024-25, so nothing seems to have changed. But the fact is that da Costa’s manager, former Formula 1 driver Tiago Monteiro, has been in detailed meetings with senior Porsche executives about his driver’s apparent discontent at various points over the past nine months or so.
Did Da Costa come close to leaving? He probably came very close. In the end, common sense seems to have prevailed to some extent, although there are likely to be some aftershocks – including Da Costa not being able to facilitate his desire to be on the WEC grid again next season.
That is likely to change by 2026 when da Costa will likely move to another Formula E team and attempt to rebuild the dual programme he so desperately desires.
It is known that Da Costa's exclusion from the WEC championship has hurt him personally, as he enjoys racing as much as possible.
However, from Porsche's perspective, its investment in the 2019-20 Formula E champion has not been realised due to a perceived dilution of focus after the mediocre 2023 season.
Da Costa's first season with Porsche certainly wasn't as strong as either side had hoped, although he did take a commanding win in Cape Town in only his fifth race with the manufacturer.
Despite finishing third in Portland and taking second in London which was taken away by disqualification, Wehrlein outscored Da Costa by 56 points and struggled in qualifying.
The current season has started poorly with no points in the first three races, and Da Costa's worst performance ever came in the two Diriyah EV races in January.
However, his response has been remarkable, with even some of his critics within the Porsche team having to praise the way he has performed so well since the middle of the season.
Things move fast in Formula E, and this story has stretched the boundaries of reality several times since The Race revealed the rift between Porsche and da Costa at the Tokyo E-Prix in March.
And now, with da Costa likely to be the linchpin in helping team-mate Wehrlein win the title in London, and also helping Porsche win the title, a new chapter in this remarkable story, perhaps the most fascinating driver-team saga this writer has ever covered, may still be due to be played out in the Docklands in a fortnight.
