Daniel Charles Anthony Ticktum (born 8 June 1999) is a British professional racing driver who last competed in Formula E for Cupra Kiro.
Born in London, Ticktum began competitive kart racing aged eight, winning several national titles. Graduating to junior formulae in 2015, Ticktum debuted in MSA Formula, but received a two-year ban from motorsport for intentionally crashing into a rival under safety car conditions. He became a member of the Red Bull Junior Team in 2017, winning the Macau Grand Prix in 2017 and 2018, as well as finishing runner-up in the 2018 FIA Formula 3 European Championship. Ticktum was awarded the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award in 2017.
After a brief Super Formula stint in 2019, Ticktum left Red Bull to join the Williams Driver Academy, where he remained until 2021. He raced in FIA Formula 2 from to with DAMS and Carlin, before moving to Formula E with NIO. He achieved his maiden victory at the Jakarta ePrix in .
Early career Karting career Born in London, Ticktum began karting in 2007 at the age of eight and started racing in championships the following year. He enjoyed early success, winning the Bamford Kart Club Winter Series and competing in the Super 1 National Championship in the Honda Cadet class with Project One Racing in just his first year of competition. In the following two years Ticktum competed to drive in local and national championships, which culminated in winning the Buckmore Park Kart Club Winter Series in 2009 and placing second in the National Super One Championship the same year, having competed for Ambition Motorsport.
In 2011, Ticktum completed the Grand Slam of British national cadet titles — winning the British Formula Kart Stars Championship, National ABkC Super One Championship, British Open Championship and British Grand Prix Championship, beating the likes of Lando Norris, Enaam Ahmed, Jamie Caroline and Billy Monger.
A year later, Ticktum moved into the international scene, competing in the WSK Euro Series and WSK Master Series, finishing both championships as the highest placed rookie.
In 2013, Ticktum joined Ricky Flynn Motorsport, finishing second in the European Championship, tying on points with winner Lando Norris, and second in the National Super One Championship. The same year Ticktum won the KFJ Andrea Margutti Trophy against the likes of Lando Norris and Jehan Daruvala, with previous winners being F1 stars Giancarlo Fisichella, Robert Kubica and Daniil Kvyat.
The following year, Ticktum finished second in the WSK Masters to Enaam Ahmed and took part in his first test in the BRDC Formula 4 Championship with Lanan Racing, where he broke the lap record at the Brands Hatch Indy Circuit. He also finished sixth and fourth in the World and European championships respectively.
MSA Formula and two year ban In 2015, Ticktum graduated to MSA Formula with Fortec Motorsport. He led the early rounds of the Championship, taking two victories at Donington and one at Snetterton, but fell behind his main rivals Lando Norris and Colton Herta as the season progressed. At the penultimate round of the season at Silverstone, Ticktum got involved in an incident with Ricky Collard on the opening lap, which dropped him to the back of the field. During the ensuing safety car period he purposely overtook several cars to crash into Collard, taking both out of the race. This saw him receive a two-year ban from motorsport, of which one year was a suspended ban, as well as a disqualification from the event's results. Following the incident, Ticktum labelled himself "a fool" and apologised to his fellow drivers and the track marshals at the circuit. As a result, he finished sixth in his first season of single-seater racing and ended up second in the rookie standings, which he had originally won during the aforementioned Silverstone weekend.
Return to single-seater racing and debut at Macau In 2016, Ticktum returned to motorsport, competing in the final round of the FIA European Formula 3 Championship in Hockenheim with Carlin. He also took part in the BRDC British Formula 3 Autumn Trophy with Double R Racing, where he won the second race and placed fourth in the standings. Following that, Ticktum made his debut in the Macau Grand Prix with Double R Racing, finishing eighth in Saturday's qualifying race before retiring early in the main race thanks to an accident caused by a rival.
Formula Renault Eurocup
2015 In 2015, Ticktum made a one-off appearance in the Formula Renault Eurocup with Koiranen GP, finishing 16th and eleventh in his two races at the Nürburgring.
2017
Following Ticktum's return to competition, he went into his first full racing season in 2017, driving in the Eurocup with Arden International, who were making their category debut that year, together with Ghislain Cordeel and Zane Goddard. He also competed in the MRF Challenge in pre-season during the final round. He claimed his only win of the season at the Hungaroring, having qualified on pole during a wet-weather session, and scored two further podiums at Silverstone and the Nürburgring, finishing the season seventh in the drivers' standings. He also became the second-best rookie of the season, finishing thirty points behind Max Fewtrell. At the end of the year, Ticktum was ranked 13th of Motorsport.com's top-20 junior single-seater drivers, and also won the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award.
GP3 Series In September 2017, Ticktum made his debut in the GP3 Series at Monza with DAMS, partnering Tatiana Calderón and Bruno Baptista. He claimed a podium finish in his second full race weekend at the season finale in Abu Dhabi and finished eleventh in the standings, ahead of some full-time competitors, including all drivers who raced for DAMS that year.
Macau Grand Prix In November 2017, Ticktum competed in a one-off race at the Macau Grand Prix with Team Motopark. He qualified sixth and finished eighth in the Qualifying race, behind two of his teammates. However, Ticktum managed to overtake three of his rivals into Lisboa corner on lap 14 and claimed victory after leaders Ferdinand Habsburg and Sérgio Sette Câmara crashed in the final corner of the 15th and final lap. He would win the race again in 2018 after dominating throughout the whole weekend, topping the qualifying session, winning the qualifying race and dominating from lights to flag in the Grand Prix. Ticktum became the third driver to win the race in consecutive years. On his victory, the Brit stated "I don’t think I ever prepared as hard for a race as this. I’ve never felt so involved or at one with a car before”.
FIA European Formula 3 Championship
In December 2017, it was confirmed that Ticktum would contest the FIA Formula 3 European Championship with Team Motopark in 2018, alongside Sebastián Fernández, Fabio Scherer, Jonathan Aberdein, Marino Sato and Jüri Vips. Ticktum started the season in positive fashion, scoring third place in the opening race at Pau. He would better that result at the Hungaroring, where he took a lights-to-flag win in the first race and finished second to Enaam Ahmed in Race 3, though a component failure prevented a podium in Race 2. At the following round at the Norisring, Ticktum stalled at the start of the second race and was hit from behind by Ameya Vaidyanathan, which forced the Brit to go to hospital and his team to fully repair the car with just a few hours available. Thankfully for Ticktum, Motopark were able to fix his chassis and he went on to win the following race, less than a tenth ahead of teammate Vips. Ticktum later described the work his team had done as "unbelievable".
The Brit endured a difficult weekend at Circuit Zandvoort, with him being squeezed into the path of Mick Schumacher by Ralf Aron at the first corner of the second race and receiving a drive-through penalty for a false start in the third race. Spa would be better for Ticktum, as he took victory in Race 2, having started from tenth on the grid. Another win at Silverstone put Ticktum into the lead of the championship, and he remained there following the seventh event, held at Misano.
However, in the last three rounds of the championship, Schumacher scored a total of eight podiums out of nine races, with five successive wins, which put Ticktum from being 36 points ahead of the Prema driver after the Misano round to being 52 points behind by season's end. Both Ticktum and Prema's Ralf Aron suggested that there was something dubious about the form Schumacher and his teammate Robert Shwartzman were showing in the final third of the season, with Ticktum describing their sudden surge in performance as "interesting".
Ticktum amassed five pole positions and a total of eight podiums, becoming the highest-placed rookie in the final year of the series. His performances also made sure that Motopark would finish second in the teams' championship. Ticktum was ranked fourth of Motorsport.com's top 20 junior single-seater drivers in 2018.
Super Formula Championship 2018 In mid-2018, Ticktum was announced to make his debut in the Super Formula Championship with Team Mugen at Sportsland Sugo. He retired from that race, but competed in the following event at Fuji, finishing eleventh. Ticktum was classified 19th in the full standings.
2019 Ticktum joined Team Mugen for the 2019 season, partnering Tomoki Nojiri, after an unsuccessful attempt to find a Formula 2 drive. His campaign started out with an eighth place at the Suzuka Circuit, but things would head for the worst when Ticktum stalled his car after a spin on a curb in the next round at Autopolis. The spin damaged the chassis, and, after his request to check the car on a chassis dyno was denied by Mugen, Ticktum found himself being one second behind teammate Nojiri in qualifying for the round at Sportsland Sugo. He finished the race in 15th position. Soon after, Ticktum was announced to be leaving the championship the following week when he was dropped from the Red Bull programme. He was replaced by Patricio O'Ward. Ticktum was eventually classified 20th in the standings.
Asian Winter Series Before the start of his 2019 Super Formula campaign, Ticktum participated in the 2019 F3 Asian Winter Series. After scoring a second place, he pulled out of the series before the final round.
2019 post-Super Formula After a brief hiatus from racing following his exit from the Red Bull Junior Team, during which Ticktum briefly considered quitting the sport, he would partake in a shakedown of the new Dallara 320 chassis at Varano. He then competed in two rounds of the Formula Regional European Championship for Van Amersfoort Racing, scoring a pair of second places in Barcelona, this allowed him to end ninth in the standings. In October, he partook in the FIA Formula 3 post-season test with Carlin at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, following that he returned to the 2019 Macau Grand Prix with Carlin. He was involved in a pileup during the qualification race, but clawed his way back to 13th in the main event.
FIA Formula 2 Championship 2018 At the start of 2018, Ticktum first tested in Formula 2 when DAMS' Nicholas Latifi had fallen ill. Following the Brit's Formula 3 campaign, he drove for Arden in the final round of the FIA Formula 2 Championship in Abu Dhabi, where he finished eleventh in his first race at that level. However, he was forced to retire from the sprint race after his car had developed a technical issue.
2020