Antonio Felix da Costa has now officially made the move to Jaguar where he will partner Mitch Evans, in a deal which is believed to run well into the Gen4 period of Formula E racing.
Replacing Nick Cassidy, who will be formally announced at the new Citroen Racing team later this month, da Costa will make his public debut at the Valencia pre-season test at the end of October. The Race understands that da Costa has already shaken down his race car in a low-power run at Abingdon Airfield in Oxfordshire recently.
Da Costa's move will ensure that Jaguar's line-up has the most wins in Formula E history, with this new pairing boasting 26 E-Prix victories between them.
But the route to Jaguar for da Costa was not a simple one. Here, The Race details that convoluted journey and how da Costa's move is set to intensify the rivalry between Porsche and Jaguar, and looks at whether da Costa has any professional bruising from a fractious prior three seasons.
How the Jaguar deal happened
At Homestead in April, it became clear that Cassidy was about to move to pastures new and go all-in with a Stellantis offer, despite being heavily courted by most other teams in the paddock, particularly Penske.
Running parallel to this was da Costa's talks with Jaguar, which also started to get serious around this time. Heading into the busy sextuplet of races in Monaco-Tokyo-Shanghai, it became evident that Jaguar was in a significant slump, results-wise at least.
Coming away from Tokyo in mid-May, Jaguar was a distant eighth in the points table and 99 points adrift of Porsche. Yet still, there was something significant in its favour in its pursuit of da Costa.
That was that the driver they were pursuing was clearly far from happy in his incumbent team and wanted to, in his words, "start enjoying my job again".
But with Porsche having an option on his services for a fourth campaign for 2025-26, Jaguar was not only having to be patient but was also having to think about a potential Plan B.
What this may have looked like isn't entirely clear. But it would probably have pivoted around a potential raid for Jake Dennis from Andretti, a swoop for the contractually complex (at the time) Stoffel Vandoorne, or a holding pattern with the much more clearly available and dependable Jake Hughes.
But the fallback plan wasn't needed. By the end of May, da Costa was sold and his only focus was his extrication from Porsche and formally putting pen to paper at Jaguar.
But surely the team's poor first half of the season play on da Costa's mind?
"It did. It did, but how they reacted to it, made me even more sure [to sign]," da Costa tells The Race in his first interview as a Jaguar driver.
"Things were very advanced around the time we got to Tokyo; the team was for sure aware that Nick was leaving, so they were actively looking for a replacement.
"But it was a poor weekend for performance for the four Jaguar cars, so I did get a little bit of cold feet, but when I did bring that up with the team, they were like, 'Hey, man, take your time and think about it because we don't want to force you in to anything'.
"That just made it even more like, 'That's the kind of environment I want to be in'."
Da Costa liked the vibe. He knew that many other teams would have been doubling down on trying to convince him and applying pressure. Jaguar didn't do that and it paid off. "The fact they took a step back, gave me the space to think about it, well that's exactly the kind of environment that I want to be surrounded in," he adds.
There were painful moments in getting da Costa's signature and it wasn't 100% certain to go through until late-July when an agreement for the disengagement was absolutely confirmed. There will have been a collective sigh of relief from Jaguar's Kidlington headquarters.
Jaguar got its man and da Costa is to begin his fourth major manufacturer programme in a decade after spells with BMW, DS and Porsche.
It is the trail from Porsche to Jaguar that is the most interesting part of the 2019-20 champion's career. There has never been a single staff member that has switched from Porsche to Jaguar or vice versa.
Arguably the two preeminent manufacturers in the championship do have a respectful rivalry, yet still one that often sparks up. Expect this move to add more than just a frisson to it.
So, Da Costa's switch will bring new tensions whether he or the two titans like it or not. But each knows that it is all part of the game.
Motorsport has certain competitive criteria in which when key personnel move to a rival there will be in-depth questions on how the working technical and sporting practices play out. It's just as natural a process as a footballer moving between Arsenal and Manchester City and outlining their training regimes.
"Everybody is very open minded here [at Jaguar], and they were very open to hear how I did things in the last three years with Porsche," says da Costa when asked about that process.
"Some things we'll be able to take on board, and some things not. Teams on engineering levels, mechanic levels, driver levels, they are always trying when you take a driver from someone else, it's not only strengthening you, but also weakening your opponent.
"It's how life is, it's how motorsport works, and I'll do my best to try and help these guys to improve on a team that is already a winning one on every level."
The emotional question
The Race asks da Costa if he felt that the 'heart on sleeve' sensibility he sometimes has and his often emotional responses to situations might hurt him. His answer is fascinating.
"Just treat me well," he says, barely taking a pause.
"I know if I do something wrong, I need to be told and that's fine. Just, don't lie to me. Tell it to my face. I think leadership and leading and the best way for a team to evolve is for someone to be able to put a hand up and say, 'Sorry, guys, I made a mistake today, and that's fine'.
"OK, don't do the same mistake twice or three times. Then we've got a problem. I know that. I know the world that we work in, but what I don't like is if you tell me, 'No, no, all good’ and then, behind my back, something else is happening.
"I'm Latin, I guess I can take things personally. But I'm not 18 years old anymore. I've earned respect in my mind and that's all I asked for, respect."
It would be too easy to attribute that response to his time at Porsche but beyond the clear disappointment in how da Costa's time there was from a political point of view, there is also genuine respect for the brand and the vast majority of those he worked with there for three seasons.
His friendship with new team-mate Evans is another intriguing aspect of his new world at Jaguar.
For Evans, this will be a different dynamic to the working relationship he had with Cassidy. Although the last two seasons involved high tension in several races, there was never an out-and-out explosion between the pair, who remain good friends.
Da Costa and Evans have not known each other as long as Evans and Cassidy, but they have been genuine mates since they raced in GP3 together, scrapping for the title in 2011, a battle that Evans won.
"I was having a chat with Mitch the other day, and hopefully the best problem we could have is to get to the last race of the year fighting for a championship. And as long as we do that with respect, I will never be angry about whatever outcome is there," adds da Costa.
"I think we've all got our mindsets aligned and our goals aligned."
