Following a fifth place finish at the World Championships in Brazil last December, Costa trained extremely hard over the off-season and returned to the Australian tour at Todd Road, Melbourne, hellbent on earning another World Championships berth.

"We're preparing to hopefully qualify for the World Championships again in Italy, and that's why we stayed down [in the Mini Max division]," Costa's father Con Toparis said. 

"Costa's only 11, so he's more than eligible to stay in this class this year and next year, if it was just purely on his racing I would've asked for an exemption and went up, but we stayed down in the quest to qualify for the worlds again and try and win a World Championship."

The margin of Costa's win in the pre-final and final of the Australia Day races was roughly six seconds, which is a huge in the world of motorsports and indicates just how dominant Costa can be on the Rotax tour. 

That result has given Con ample confidence in his son ahead of the next event at Eastern Creek from March 8 to March 10. 

"I'm not saying it's a done deal, but we're heading in the right direction," he said. 

"He works hard and he puts it in. He's now learning to race really well from the front, that's a skill that you've got to work on." 

The 11-year-old's competitive drive is intense, as it is for all elite athletes, and his desire to earn another World Championships opportunity means that he is striving to improve wherever he possibly can. 

"[Costa] sits in the pits, he sits beside the car, he does his own data," Con said. 

"He tries to understand where he can go faster, what he can change with his driving style to avoid sliding. 

"He is feeling good about it, he's feeling that he's heading in the right direction. He's very focused on trying to be as good as he can to perform the best that he can which gives him the greatest possible opportunity of qualifying to represent Australia again in October."