Dan Ticktum

Born on 8 June 1999 in London, Ticktum won the Grand Slam of British national cadet karting titles in 2011, beating contemporaries including Lando Norris and Billy Monger. In 2015, competing in MSA Formula, he received a two-year ban from motorsport — one year active, one suspended — after intentionally crashing into a rival under safety car conditions at Silverstone. He later described himself as "a fool" and apologised publicly.

Returning in 2016, he rebuilt his career and in 2017 won the Macau Grand Prix in extraordinary circumstances, passing several cars in a single move at Lisboa corner on the final lap after the leaders crashed. He repeated the feat in 2018, this time dominant throughout the weekend. His performances earned him membership of the Red Bull Junior Team and the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award. He finished runner-up in the 2018 FIA Formula 3 European Championship to Mick Schumacher — a title he felt he had been on course to win before Schumacher's dominant final-third surge — before a brief and unsuccessful Super Formula stint led to Red Bull cutting ties in mid-2019. The Williams Driver Academy then signed him.

Ticktum joined DAMS for the 2020 Formula 2 season alongside Sean Gelael. He began solidly, scoring points in the early Austrian rounds including a second place in the sprint at the second Red Bull Ring round, where he lost the lead to Christian Lundgaard after leading most of the race.

His maiden F2 victory came at the second Silverstone weekend in the sprint race, where he held off a charging Lundgaard to win by a narrow margin. However, his season was tarnished: at Spa-Francorchamps he collided with fellow Williams Academy member Roy Nissany while battling for the lead of the sprint race, sending the Israeli into the barriers. At Monza he won the sprint from the front, only for the result to be stripped for insufficient fuel at the post-race check — dropping him out of the standings significantly.

He added further points finishes at Mugello, Sochi, and Bahrain but was unable to challenge for the title after the Monza disqualification. He ended 2020 eleventh in the championship with 96.5 points, one win, and three other podiums, as the fourth-highest scoring rookie.

Ticktum moved to Carlin for 2021, partnering Jehan Daruvala. His season opener at Bahrain included a second place in the feature race, only half a second behind race winner Guanyu Zhou following a well-executed strategic gamble. At Monaco he inherited his first win of the season after Liam Lawson was disqualified from the sprint race.

He showed consistent front-running pace through the middle of the season, collecting a second place at Baku in the sprint and podiums at Silverstone — scoring more points across that weekend than any driver bar championship leader Oscar Piastri. His second victory came in wet conditions at Sochi in the sprint race, though he stated in the aftermath that the win "doesn't mean much" given he was not on course for Formula One — a candid admission that drew attention to his increasingly strained relationship with his career prospects.

By Jeddah he had accumulated six consecutive rounds with at least one podium. He ultimately finished fourth in the championship with 159.5 points, two wins, and seven total podiums — his best F2 campaign by a considerable margin.

Ticktum was released from the Williams Academy in August 2021 following a public incident in which he appeared to criticise teammate Nicholas Latifi online. He moved to Formula E later that season. His F2 record — competitive pace, a tendency for controversy, and genuine racecraft — reflected a career defined as much by events around the car as in it. His 2021 fourth-place finish, achieved with clear speed and championship consistency, remains the clearest evidence of what Ticktum was capable of in structured competition. He went on to claim his first Formula E victory at Jakarta in 2025, more than a decade after his junior career first suggested he could reach the top of the sport.