How Formula E's polarising newcomer can prove himself

Dan Ticktum is a polarising figure. While his progression up the single-seater ladder has been based on speed and not money, his temperament has repeatedly created backlash. When some desire motorsport to have more outspoken mavericks, just as many see no place for expletive-filled outbursts on team radio and live-streaming blunders deriding a points-scoring Williams Grand Prix colleague.

For every crime in Ticktum’s career to date, there has been a punishment. He served a two-year ban for wiping out Ricky Collard under the safety car in a 2015 MSA Formula race at Silverstone and was dropped by both Red Bull and Williams F1 development schemes for other matters.

You might therefore argue the latest NIO 333 team signing moves to Formula E with a professional clean slate. He’s done his time, as it were. But both for his public perception and for the sake his career, with the door to his F1 dream almost closed, there’s the motivation of a redemption story arc to write should he so wish.

The Briton accepts he’s “done some stupid things along the way”, having “opened my mouth far too many times and said things I shouldn’t have said”. He admits he doesn’t fit the mould of a modern F1 driver and “I am who I am”. But, as he recently said, “I’m learning”.

A switch to Formula E wouldn’t have been the first choice for Ticktum but now that he’s here, he doesn’t necessarily need fulfil that cliché of ‘reinventing himself’. Within reason, the more commonly known and feisty Ticktum has a lot to offer the series.

To make his mark in the championship, there are three criteria against which he must prove himself. Broadly, they are the same three boxes any newly-arrived driver must tick. But unlike many of his new-found electric rivals, there isn’t a factory sportscar drive or F1 simulator role to fall back on. Even though Ticktum is only 22 and won’t be guilty of using Formula E to slide into a post-F1 retirement, there’s a sense that another misstep at NIO 333 might decisively make him too hot a coal for others to touch.

Ticktum joins fellow Briton Turvey, a stalwart of the team dating back to its first year in FE under the Team China banner

Photo by: NIO Formula E Team

1. Be quick and clever

The most obvious trick that Ticktum must bring to the party is pace. In theory, this is an easy place to start. He is hugely fast and adept at adapting to new machinery.

He’s a two-time Macau Grand Prix winner (something that bodes incredibly well for the street circuit-led Formula E calendar), was deprived of the 2018 FIA F3 European title that went to Mick Schumacher, and he has earned a trio of FIA F2 sprint race victories.

His first-ever sample of F1 machinery – the headline prize for winning the 2017 McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award – was a drive in the MP4-28. In the 2013 machine campaigned by Jenson Button and Sergio Perez, on a bitterly cold day at Silverstone and while running the muted Pirelli demonstration tyres, he took Abbey flat-out. That unofficial measure always signifies a happy blend of commitment and talent.

But having a heavy right foot is no guarantee of success in Formula E, the thinking-driver’s competition. He must be shrewd and manage the energy demands, which requires a driver to recover up to 35% capacity per race. As Jaguar Racing’s Mitch Evans will attest to from Monaco earlier this year, a spectacular pass up the hill into Beau Rivage might earn plenty of plaudits and the race lead temporarily but it can soon bite back when it’s taken too much out of the useable battery and creates a costly and lethargic crawl to the flag.

If NIO 333 remains backrow fodder as expected, Ticktum’s best bet of impressing is to start by defeating his team-mate

Ticktum must also satisfy the need of beating his team-mate, which means getting the better of Oliver Turvey. The Cambridge engineering graduate, who is decorated as a Full Blue, is preparing for his eighth season at NIO 333. He understands the series fully and can guide car set-up with distinction. He’s viewed by his rivals as the most underrated driver on the grid (which raises the question that if everyone thinks you’re underrated, doesn’t that just make you ‘rated’?), thanks to his talents being disguised by lacklustre machinery.

Turvey was somewhat overshadowed in 2021 by the standout performances of his new team-mate Tom Blomqvist, who turned down a contract extension at NIO 333 to pursue a top-class IMSA SportsCar Championship berth with DPi outfit Myer Shank Racing to create space for Ticktum. But Turvey remains revered. As such, beating him must be a clear yardstick by which to measure Ticktum.

That is more crucial for 2022 when the maligned group qualifying format is replaced by a Superleague Formula-style knockout system. Track evolution will no longer swing in favour of the poorest-ranked drivers in the championship to create the realistic proposition of landing a top-10 grid slot.

With the homologation regulations ensuring NIO 333 will carry over its 001 machine – which propped up the teams’ championship in 2021 - into the new campaign, teamed with the more orderly qualifying format, giant-killing performance will no longer become the norm. If NIO 333 remains backrow fodder as expected, Ticktum’s best bet of impressing is to start by defeating his team-mate.

Ticktum may be good value on the radio, but will also need to keep emotions in check

Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd

2. Handle the media

This is not an easy dig at Ticktum, whose unfiltered comments have attracted the bulk of the criticism and cost him the Williams development role. But there is a line to tread in Formula E.

The championship does not want its drivers to hide behind a PR veil. Those that have come from grand prix teams into Formula E have been coached to ditch their empty comments to the press to generate more attention. They’re told to lose the filter to a degree, as honesty creates greater interest. Ticktum is a safe bet for some quality soundbites in the Formula E media pen that will garner coverage.

Similarly, the championship’s own YouTube channel belatedly uploads the best team radio clips from each race. It’s high likely Ticktum will feature in the highlights reel and that too is no bad thing. Team principals and drivers Autosport has spoken to since Ticktum’s signing say he’ll be ‘good value’.

But there are limits, and this may well be tested by the rough and tumble nature of racing in the Formula E pack. The robust Gen2 machine tacitly permits body contact in squabbles for position because it can survive repeated hits. If any driver is on the receiving end of such a blow, tempers boil over and un-pleasantries are exchanged.

There is absolutely a place for that cut and thrust, but Ticktum has already had to defend prior cases of heat-of-the-moment team radio bursts. If it becomes too frequent in what is a largely convivial paddock (although no professional driver is there to make friends), it can become laborious for teams to manage and be damaging to his prospects of retaining the seat, moving to a more competitive team or fulfilling a desire to race in IndyCar.

There’s a line to tread. And when so many of his new peers boast Le Mans class victories and a host of respected single-seater titles, Ticktum may wish to pick his battles carefully.

NIO is unlikely to be capable of winning with its old car carried forward, so Ticktum has an important developmental role to play

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

3. Help build a struggling team

NIO 333 is Formula E’s backmarker squad. The team has not long completed a hat-trick of last-place finishes in the teams’ standings and is rapidly closing in on four years since its most recent appearance on the podium. That is the longest drought in the series.

To arrest the poor form, Lisheng Racing arrived as the new majority stakeholder on the eve of the 2019-20 season. There’s been a switch in powertrain supplier, two different team principals, a fresh Silverstone HQ and Ticktum represents the fourth stablemate to Turvey in that time under new investment.

If he wants to retain a seat in Formula E, he needs to integrate well into the team and help NIO 333 in its enduring quest to be more competitive. Ticktum was both active and well thought of in the Red Bull and Williams simulators to clearly prove his worth in this respect

While carrying over last term’s car into the new season presents little chance of an immediate and major turnaround in the squad’s fortunes, 2022 marks the last year of the Gen2 machine. As the grid prepares for the new regulations to come into play and private manufacturer testing beckons, Ticktum will have a key development role to play alongside Turvey.

If he wants to retain a seat in Formula E, he needs to integrate well into the team and help NIO 333 in its enduring quest to be more competitive. Ticktum was both active and well thought of in the Red Bull and Williams simulators to clearly prove his worth in this respect.

By nature, Ticktum and Turvey are chalk and cheese in their demeanour. Turvey is a totally calm mainstay of the team so it would be wisest to work harmoniously with the McLaren F1 test driver to keep a happy camp and ensure the team is pushing in the right direction.

To NIO 333’s credit, despite the ailing performance, it makes for a much more stable environment in which Ticktum can make his Formula E debut compared to if he’d stepped into the volatility at Dragon Penske Autosport. In terms of personal and car development, NIO 333 and Ticktum may suit each other very well.

Ticktum scored his second win of the year last time out in Sochi on a slippery track

Photo by: James Gasperotti / Motorsport Images