DTM stint an "incomplete mission", says da Costa
Outgoing BMW DTM driver Antonio Felix da Costa admits he is saddened to be leaving the series without having achieved the status of a consistent frontrunner.
Press Conference António Félix da Costa, BMW Team Schnitzer, BMW M4 DTM
Alexander Trienitz
Da Costa, who took his sole win in the DTM at Zandvoort last year, had had a trying 2016 season and sits only 18th in the standings.
The rounds at the Hungaroring and Hockenheim will, for the foreseeable future, be his last in the DTM following the announcement that the Portuguese driver will focus on Formula E and other BMW projects.
"I have to be honest, I'm leaving with a feeling of an incomplete mission," said da Costa.
"I've been able to win a race here and to have some good results, but it has been a difficult time.
"I've felt like, as a driver, I've not been able to extract my maximum potential in this championship. Nonetheless, I've been super happy here, I've learned a lot."
In explaining his decision to call time on his DTM tenure, da Costa heaped praise on BMW teammate Marco Wittmann, who currently leads the chapionship.
"I've not been consistently in the front pack. I've been there, I've been at the back, I've been in the middle.
"But then again, I think we see this with all 24 drivers, apart from one - Marco Wittmann. And it's probably why he won a championship already and he's leading now. Marco has really got something special that we, all the other 23 drivers, are struggling to find.
"I'm struggling to find why I can't be at the front all the time - and this is why I leave DTM a little bit sad, because I've not been able to leave with an answer or a strong result. But we still have two weekends to go and a lot to be accomplished."
Future projects
BMW has confirmed da Costa will stay on as "part of the BMW motorsport family" - and the Portuguese driver himself said that he'd be involved in projects that are yet to be officially outlined.
"I've been approached by BMW with very nice future projects that will be presented soon - and I decided to take that route.
"One of them is that I will join Andretti in Formula E."
Da Costa also said that his decision to stop combining schedules in the DTM and Formula E was because both championships required full focus.
"DTM and Formula E are two championships that are big now and they require full-time focus. I was not doing well in either of them, so you really have to shift your focus more towards one of them.
"It felt fair, at the moment, to do that with Formula E."
Additional reporting by David Gruz
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