Antonio Felix da Costa is in admission over his chances of getting into Formula 1, conceding that the opportunity of racing in the sport has probably passed.
The Portuguese driver, now racing in DTM and in the next round of Formula E, had been widely tipped by many to make the step up to F1 with Toro Rosso as part of being an associated driver of Red Bull’s junior driver programme.
However after a successful 2012 campaign, consisting of wins in the traditional Macau Grand Prix, GP3 (en route to finishing 3rd in the championship) and the Formula Renault 3.5 series despite only contesting the second half of the FR3.5 campaign, a troubled campaign last year in the series meant he was overlooked by Red Bull, who have since opted for Daniil Kvyat and Max Verstappen to progress into F1 instead from GP3 and European Formula 3 respectively.
da Costa seeked refuge in the German premier class of touring car racing for 2014 and believes that it’s his primary focus for the near-future despite clinging onto hopes of securing a drive in F1 for this year.
“At the start of the season I had hoped still to go into Formula One,” da Costa told German publication Speed Week. “But although I am only 23 and it’s a bit young to give up a dream, I had to decide what to focus on, and that is DTM,”
da Costa currently lies a lowly 21st in the DTM championship this season and has had a small points-return of 4 points in the 10 races contested so far.
Although the 23-year old will be satisfied if his long-term career happens to see him race in DTM and that his debut season will be just the beginning.
“I enjoy DTM very much and from the beginning it has gone well, so I have decided to concentrate on this.” added da Costa.
“If I was to spend ten years here, I would be happy,”
