António Felix da Costa made a big impression on Ocean Racing Technology, as well as the whole GP2 paddock, after clocking some seriously fast times first time out in a GP2 car at the recent test days at Paul Ricard.
The young Portugese driver set his best time of 1:12.497 in last Wednesday’s test and a pair of 5th places over the two days he completed.
“It was very positive,” he said. “The GP2 car is very different to all the others I have driven so far and to clock the 5th fastest time in both the sessions I took the wheel is really satisfying.
“After this test, it is quite clear that the GP2 Series is my aim but now I have to gather all the guarantees in order to drive in the best conditions as well as the team which would be interested in my application.”
Da Costa may well have a good chance at securing a drive for Ocean. He is the reigning Formula Renault NEC champion, as well as coming 3rd overall in the similar Eurocup series.
Best of all for him though, former F1 driver Tiago Monteiro is one of Ocean’s owners and would likely be keen to run a young, talented fellow countryman in his team.
“The main target was hit because we discovered new talents and confirmed some others,” said Monteiro. “We’ll have to make our choice in regard to drivers who have great potential.”
Ocean also tested Christian Vietoris, Jerome D’Ambrosio, Rodolfo Gonzalez and Charles Pic over the duration of last week’s 3 day test.
