INTERVIEW: Antonio Felix da Costa swapped Formula E for a '60s Jaguar

That was destined to change when he signed with the Jaguar TCS Racing Formula E team in 2025, a marque that is built upon more than seven decades of motorsport heritage. It would only a matter of time before he found himself at the wheel of a 1950s Jaguar racing car, and his opportunity came at the 2026 Revival — something he'd been looking forward to for most of his racing life. 

"I've said to my family countless times I should've been born 60 years earlier," he told us when we caught up with him during the Revival weekend. "It's amazing, things were just simpler, purer. 

"I love what I do for a living, but it's so good to just get out of our racing bubble and come to see how things were done in the past." 

At 35 years of age, Felix da Costa is part of a generation of drivers who know nothing other than modern motorsport. He graduated from karting into single seaters in 2008, and raced against the likes of Valtteri Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Éric Vergne during his early years of Formula Renault. 

But while those names found their way into Formula 1, Felix Da Costa's path took him first to DTM, and then onto Formula E, where he was a member of the inaugural grid in the 2014-15 season. 

Formula E's winter schedule meant he could also branch out into other categories, and he found a second home in the World Endurance Championship with Jota, first in LMP2, and then in the new Hypercar class, a team he will return to in 2027. 

"I think I've lived through an amazing era of racing," he said. "When I transitioned from go-karting to cars it was still very pure, I drove with sequential gears and clutches.  

"Now everything's happening on paddle shifts, electronic clutches, throttle-by-wire, we lost a lot of the cables and the carburettors, and obviously in Formula E we're really pushing the boundaries of technology." 

So, you imagine jumping in an historic Jaguar at the Revival must have been quite the shock for him. 

"It's amazing," he said. "It's not totally new to me, I can open the bonnet and see where things are, and if something's broken I could actually get my hands in there. I'm very happy with the era that I grew up in, but I love coming back to this, it's a massive reality check. 

"I wasn't a classic car guy at all until five or six years ago," he continued. "I got a couple of cars for myself and started to get a little bit more interested in the classic car world." 

He gradually started to attend a couple of classic car shows near his home in Portugal, but his trip to the Revival was the first time he planned to take part. 

And he'd be doing so in the hallowed St. Mary's Trophy presented by Motul at the wheel of a Jaguar MkII, a car that found plenty of success around the globe winning touring car championships in Australia and across Europe. Powered by a 3.8-litre straight-six, it's the quintessential historic Jaguar package. 

But Felix da Costa’s preparation, thanks the hectic schedule of a racing driver, was limited to reading about its history and looking at it in pictures, and watching onboard footage to learn the track. His first experience of driving the car was when he left the assembly area for Official Practice. 

"We did try to get a little shakedown to feel the gearbox, the brakes, the steering, but that was unfortunately impossible. So I literally jumped in the car for the first time, drove the track for the first time, 15 minutes of driving, that's it. 

"It was a real shocker," he said. "In a good way, I love to test myself. The car is moving around so much, there's no power steering, there's a lot to get used to. 

"I did tell myself I wasn't going to come here to try and win, but of course when the helmet is on your competitive self switches on, so I was pushing myself and my confidence levels every lap." 

And it was a baptism of fire for the Revival debutant, because he was sharing the Goodwood Motor Circuit with a veritable who's who of motorsport. The VIP grid for the St. Mary's Trophy is always stacked with huge names, and Felix da Costa learned who he would be dicing with when he was sent a copy of the entry list a couple of weeks prior to the event. 

"I looked at it and said, 'OK, there's a very good chance I could be last'. Between F1 drivers, Le Mans winners, NASCAR legends, BTCC Champions, it's crazy. I'm going up against real experts who've been here many times and it's a humbling one, a hundred per cent. 

"But honestly this year I'm just enjoying it, soaking everything in, seeing familiar faces and old friends, and now I get to race them. It's already been an incredible day. 

"For me, I'm just trying to get rid of the pressure and enjoy the passion that we all share for racing." 

It may have been his first time at the Goodwood Revival, but Antonio Felix da Costa has already fully embraced the ethos of this great event. He hopes to be back, too, and he'll be very welcome. 

Main image photography by Tom Baigent.