Porsche lose appeal against Da Costa's Misano disqualification

Written by Vyas Ponnuri

The International Court of Appeal has rejected the appeal by TAG Heuer Porsche to reinstate Antonio Felix Da Costa's victory in round six of the 2024 Formula E season at Misano, after the Portuguese racer was disqualified due to an incorrect throttle damper setting.

As much as he celebrated his first victory of the season, Da Costa would be disqualified later | Credit - Simon Galloway

Da Costa had driven a stellar race to take victory on Formula E's first visit to the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, before his car was disqualified, after post-race checks revealed the incorrect throttle damper setting, stripping the Porsche racer of his victory.

Porsche lodged their right to appeal this decision, and get Da Costa's victory reinstated, and had 96 hours to pursue the matter, which they duly did. The case then carried over to the International Court of Appeal (ICA), pencilled in for June 7th.

While Porsche's arguments were based on the part in question being previously used in Gen2, but not included in the list of parts used on the 'GEN3 Spark' car used for the 2023 and 2024 seasons.

The German manufacturer argued of never being reprimanded for using the errant part up until the Misano weekend, while the part itself didn't provide any advantage.

The court stated, in return, that the obligation to comply with regulations lies solely with the competitors, and that Porsche hadn't produced any evidence of the part providing any performance advantage over the past season and a half.

The court upheld the disqualification of Da Costa's Porsche under Article 27.10 of the Sporting Code, and Article 3.3 of the technical regulations, as per the stewards scrutiny during post-race inspections at Misano.

The result leaves Porsche a distant second in the constructors | Credit - Sam Bagnall

This disqualification comes as a jolt to Porsche's championship ambitions this season, leaving them 73 points adrift of championship leaders Jaguar in the standings. Had the verdict been the opposite, and Da Costa's Misano win reinstated, the points gap would have fallen under 50 points, giving Porsche a chance to make a fist of the battle with four rounds still to go.

The verdict leaves Da Costa on 84 points in the standings, nearly half the tally of championship leader Nick Cassidy, when a victory could have brought him within 60 points of the Kiwi, making him an outside contender for the title with only a handful of races remaining.

The result also ensures Oliver Rowland keeps the victory for Nissan, ensuring he keeps his status as a race-winner this season, and retains seven extra points that could be crucial in the championship battles for himself as well as Nissan.