How Dan Ticktum went from Macau winner to a Formula E podium

Dan Ticktum won the Macau Grand Prix in 2017 and again in 2018, finished runner-up in the 2018 FIA Formula 3 European Championship and took Formula 2 sprint wins before settling into Formula E. His route ran through karting, several single-seater series, Super Formula and time spent in the Red Bull and Williams academies. A first Formula E victory at the 2025 Jakarta ePrix gave the career its clearest high point so far.

How did Ticktum come up through karting?

Ticktum started karting in 2007 at the age of eight and was racing in championships a year later. He won the Bamford Kart Club Winter Series in his first year of competition, and by 2011 he had completed the British cadet grand slam. Those races pitted him against Lando Norris, Enaam Ahmed and Billy Monger.

Next came the international karting scene, with the WSK Euro Series and WSK Master Series, where he finished both as the highest placed rookie. A year later he was second in the European Championship, level on points with the winner, Lando Norris. Results like those made single-seaters the obvious next step.

A karting champion whose early career included a two-year ban, then a steady climb to a first Formula E win in Jakarta.

Why was Ticktum banned after the 2015 Silverstone incident?

At Silverstone in 2015, Ticktum deliberately crashed into Ricky Collard during a safety car period, after overtaking several cars to reach him. He was disqualified from the event and handed a two-year ban, with one year suspended. Afterwards he called himself a fool and apologised to fellow drivers and the marshals on site.

The penalty landed in a season that had started well. He took two wins at Donington and one at Snetterton, then fell behind his main rivals as the season progressed. After the disqualification he still finished sixth in his first single-seater season and second in the rookie standings.

The ban did not end his career. In 2016 he took part in the final round of the European Formula 3 Championship at Hockenheim with Carlin, then made his Macau debut with Double R Racing and finished eighth in the qualifying race. Single-seater racing picked up pace the following year.

In 2017 he drove for Arden International in the Formula Renault Eurocup, won at the Hungaroring and finished seventh in the standings. The same year brought the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award, a GP3 debut with DAMS at Monza and a one-off Macau win with Team Motopark. Motorsport.com ranked him 13th among its top 20 junior drivers at the end of it.

A Formula 3 title fight lost in the final rounds of 2018

Motopark signed Ticktum for its 2018 FIA Formula 3 campaign, and he led the standings for much of the year. He was 36 points clear after the Misano round, but Mick Schumacher then took eight podiums from nine races in the final three rounds, including five successive wins. Ticktum finished the season 52 points behind.

He still finished with five pole positions and eight podiums, and he was the highest placed rookie of the season. Motopark took second in the teams championship, and Motorsport.com ranked Ticktum fourth among the junior drivers that year.

His wins that year came at the Hungaroring, the Norisring, Spa-Francorchamps and Silverstone. At the Norisring a collision at the start of race two sent him to hospital, yet Motopark rebuilt his chassis in only a few hours and he won the next race. Ticktum later described the team's work as unbelievable.

Two Super Formula seasons with Team Mugen

Ticktum made his Super Formula debut with Team Mugen at Sportsland Sugo in 2018 and retired there. He recovered to eleventh at Fuji, which left him classified 19th at the end of the year.

The 2019 season, with Tomoki Nojiri as team-mate, opened with eighth at Suzuka. At Autopolis a spin on a curb damaged the chassis, and Mugen declined his request for a chassis dyno check. At Sugo he qualified a second behind Nojiri and finished fifteenth. Red Bull then dropped him, Patricio O'Ward took his seat, and Ticktum was classified 20th overall.

What followed Super Formula in 2019

Once he had left Red Bull, Ticktum briefly considered quitting motorsport. He came back at Varano, where he took part in a shakedown of the new Dallara 320 chassis, and then took part in two Formula Regional European rounds with Van Amersfoort Racing.

Two second places at Barcelona lifted him to ninth in that championship. In October he joined Carlin for the FIA Formula 3 post-season test at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, and he then returned to Macau with the same team.

In the Macau qualifying race he was caught in a pile-up, but he recovered to 13th in the main event. It was a useful finish after a hard year in Super Formula.

Did Ticktum win in Formula 2?

Ticktum won in Formula 2 in both 2020 and 2021. His 2020 season with DAMS ended eleventh overall, with one victory and three other podiums. In 2021 he took sprint wins at Monaco and Sochi, and the year closed with him fourth in the drivers standings.

A 2020 sprint win at Monza was later stripped after his car was found short of fuel after the flag. Even so he finished the year as the fourth-highest rookie with 96.5 points.

The 2020 calendar mixed promise with misfortune. He qualified ninth for the opening Austrian round and climbed to fifth in the feature race. At Mugello he took second on the grid, but incidents cost him any points that weekend. In the Bahrain finale he claimed reverse pole for the feature race with an eighth place, then finished third behind the Carlin drivers.

The 2021 season with Carlin, alongside Jehan Daruvala, was closer than the final table suggests. Ticktum finished second in Bahrain, half a second behind Guanyu Zhou, and claimed third at Monza after a late safety car restart. He ended on 159.5 points, 23.5 behind third-placed Zhou.

Monaco in 2021 brought both a win and a retirement. Liam Lawson was disqualified from the sprint, which handed Ticktum his first win of the year. In the feature race he got stuck at La Rascasse after an attempted pass on Oscar Piastri. He took the blame and apologised to his team.

What happened in Formula 1 and the academies?

Ticktum's Formula One involvement stayed at test and academy level. He drove the McLaren MP4-28 at Silverstone as the reward for the 2017 BRDC award, and he took part in Red Bull's young driver testing in 2019. Red Bull parted ways with him in mid-2019, and in December 2019 he joined the Williams Driver Academy as a development driver.

A 2018 in-season test with Red Bull was closed to him because he lacked superlicence points, and the team called the situation odd. Red Bull also scolded him after he questioned Mick Schumacher's dominance in that year's Formula 3 season.

Williams confirmed his release in August 2021, shortly after he criticised fellow driver Nicholas Latifi, and the academy relationship ended there.

How did Formula E go for Ticktum?

Ticktum signed with NIO 333 for the 2021-22 season and finished 21st in the championship. His best result came with a fourth place at Misano in 2023-24, a season that ended 19th overall with 12 points.

The early seasons were tough. He scored his first Formula E point in Rome after a post-race penalty for another driver. In 2022-23 he qualified fifth in Mexico City, a personal best grid slot at that stage, and Berlin that year ended in a collision with Stoffel Vandoorne and a five-place grid drop for the next day.

The 2022-23 season started brightly with that personal best fifth on the grid. A drive-through penalty for exceeding the power limit and two penalties for cutting the chicane left him 17th at the flag. Car damage ended his Hyderabad race near halfway, but he came back from eighth on the grid in Cape Town to finish sixth.

Sao Paulo was harder. He narrowly missed the duels by a tenth of a second, then collided with Jake Dennis at Turn 1 after missing his braking point. That earned a 15-second penalty, and he apologised to Dennis after the race.

The Monaco ePrix that season brought both points and controversy. Ticktum qualified fifth and ran near the front until a light tap on Norman Nato's car damaged his front wing. He nursed the slowing car up the hill after Turn 1, where Maximilian Gunther ran into the back of it and was out of the race. Gunther asked for a ban, but Ticktum and the stewards judged it a racing incident.

The 2023-24 season was harder, with only one points finish in the whole campaign. The team, by then ERT, ended last in the teams championship.

The team changed name twice. NIO became ERT Formula E Team for 2023-24 and then Cupra Kiro for 2024-25, when David Beckmann joined Ticktum as team-mate.

The 2024-25 season opened with eighth at Sao Paulo, a race of attrition, followed by ninth in race two at Jeddah. Miami was chaotic, but Ticktum came home seventh. At the first Monaco race he was seventh again, but in the second he slid off the track after a touch with Nick Cassidy and missed the top ten.

Shanghai gave him another chance at the front. Starting 21st, he was on the podium by the final lap, but an attempt to pass Taylor Barnard for second ended with Jean-Eric Vergne taking him on the main straight. Ticktum finished fourth at the flag.

The biggest result came in Jakarta. Ticktum qualified fifth, then inherited the lead with six laps to go after Jake Dennis and Nyck de Vries clashed and both cars failed. Edoardo Mortara pressed him to the flag, but Ticktum held on for the win in his 60th Formula E start.

It was the Kiro team's first victory in its modern form, and the first for the squad since the 2015 Moscow ePrix, when it ran as NEXTEV TCR. Ticktum then took the first Formula E pole of his career in London, though the season finale was chaotic for him.

In race one at London he punted Mitch Evans into a spin while defending from Jake Dennis, then crashed into the wall in an overtaking attempt on Sam Bird. He took his maiden pole the day after that race, but a grid penalty for the Evans contact dropped him to sixth. Berlin earlier in the season had brought ninth on Saturday and no points on Sunday, after a strategic error that his Porsche colleagues shared by leading early.

Career results by series