A Miami Olympic gold medalist and a Formula E champion talk about speed
Wednesday afternoon’s meeting at Miami Northwestern High’s running track sounds a little like what late film critic Roger Ebert called “A Wunza Movie” — wunza graduate of The West fleet of foot, wunza Portuguese driver with electric speed in a car, both world champions at going fast.
That’s Twanisha “Tee Tee” Terry, 400-meter relay Olympic gold medalist and three-time World Championships gold medalist, now living in Clermont, and Jaguar TCS Racing’s Antonio Felix da Costa, the 2019-20 Formula E racing series world champion, in town for Saturday’s ABB Formula E Miami E Prix at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.
Da Costa, fondly remembers racing down Biscayne Boulevard and around the Miami Heat’s arena during Formula E’s first season, 2015. He’d remember the series’ return to the Miami area, last April at Homestead-Miami Speedway, with more warmth but for bad racing luck.
With six laps left and Da Costa holding the lead and an advantage in remaining battery power, a crash at the back of the field tumbled dominoes that ended with Da Costa third. Da Costa’s then-TAG Heuer Porsche teammate Pascal Wehrlein won with Lola Yamaha ABT’s Lucas di Grassi second.
READ MORE: Wehrlein wins the Formula E Miami E-Prix after crash unplugs teammate Da Costa
That race drew 17,000 down to Homestead despite little local marketing or media coverage. Sans broadcast network TV coverage, Formula E’s constructing its U.S. fan base via the individual teams and series continuous posting to various online platforms (and, “Driver,” the Formula E version of Formula 1’s “Drive to Survive”).
Terry, a “Drive to Survive” viewer who follows Formula 1, said of Formula E, “I’ve seen bits and pieces of it. I know the gist of it because they have similar features to Formula 1. Obviously, the main difference is they’re electric.”
Terry pointed out, physically, both track sprinters and Formula E driers “want to be as lean as possible” so as not to weigh themselves or the car down. Da Costa enjoyed talking with a relay race sprinter about the details in sprinting and baton passing, where relays often are won and lost (especially with the U.S. teams at Olympics and world championships).
“She was so nice in getting some small details with me on how she preps and how she races and how she passes the baton — the gaps between the fingers, when they’re open, how you want to grab it,” Da Costa said. “I’ll try to give her the same amount of insights. I think once we get the opportunity to get within the level of details of another sports we don’t know so well, that’s when it becomes interesting.”
Saturday, when there’s qualifying for the Miami E-Prix in the morning and the race in the afternoon, Da Costa will get to return the favor when showing Terry all that goes on in a Formula E car.
“To give you a quick example, my car can change up to 10 settings on configurations, corner by corner, within the same lap,” he said. “I talked to Tee Tee about it. She couldn’t believe it.”
This story was originally published January 28, 2026 at 4:47 PM.
