Dan Ticktum and Pepe Marti could have challenged for at least podiums vin the first Shanghai EPrix of the weekend but both were denied by the precautionary safety car deployment on Lap 20. For Ticktum especially, it ultimately saw his appalling 2026 luck reach new heights of misfortune.
The CUPRA Kiro drivers had used just 50-seconds of their six-minute Attack Mode power boost, which they took together, when the safety car was deployed as rain descended on the Shanghai International Circuit. At that stage Ticktum was placed 14th but was in the train that included eventual second and third placed cars of Antonio Felix da Costa and Jake Dennis.
Ironically, it was the closing in of the rain shower that had triggered Ticktum and his race engineer Mike Henderson’s decision to grab the Attack Mode to make the track positions up, something which the British would undoubtedly have done, putting himself in a position for what he felt could have been podium position.
The same scenario played out for Ticktum’s CUPRA Kiro teammate Pepe Marti, who was in an even better position of sixth position when the safety car was called and was about to push to the front of the field.
After the race, Ticktum was characteristically blunt when asked about the decision by race director, Marek Hanaczewski, to choose the safety car option as the shower was incoming across the circuit.
“I don’t understand why the race director just s*** himself when there was a bit of rain and called the safety car,” Ticktum told FEN after the race.
“It ruined my race, Pepe’s race, Edo’s race… the rain got a little bit harder but it was still only spitting the whole time, it never got to a point where it was fully wet, it was just very damp, basically,” added Ticktum.
Regarding the decision to bring out the Safety Car at that stage of the race, the FIA’s Head of Formula E stated that “the deployment of the Safety Car is always dictated strictly by safety criteria, and Marek Hanaczewski, our FIA Race Director, made the right call today. With heavy rain hitting a large part of the track towards the end of the race, it was crucial to allow drivers to adapt to the changing track surface safely before restarting the race once the downpour had eased.”
Ticktum continued that he “saw the rain get a bit heavier and I said to the guys I think we should go now before everything else, it was absolutely the right thing to do, we would have got the jump on a few people. I don’t think we could have done any more.”
Ticktum had dropped back behind teammate Marti in the early phase of the race which enabled the Spaniard to get priority on the PitBoost stop. But with Marti also compromised by the safety car deployment he probably lost out on a third podium in three events too.
“I think he (Marti) would have almost certainly have been on the podium and we wouldn’t have been far off,” acknowledged Ticktum. “We got everything right, I don’t think we could have done anything more.”
Ticktum pitted under the safety car to change tyres and opt for wet-pressured Hankooks, in a final hail mary quest to try and get in to the points.
“Our race was pretty ruined at that point so I thought we might as well, so I called that, the team agreed quickly. If we had a few more laps and I still had my Attack Mode at that phase of the race, I would have been close to winning I think.”
Ticktums’ Trials in ‘Luck-Based’ FE
Ticktum hasn’t been shy in condemning some of the more random aspects of Formula E to which he has fallen foul this season.
Accidents via competitors, what he perceived as a wrong stewarding call for his accident with Antonio Felix da Costa at Monaco and now falling foul of a snap-safety car call have all seen him fall away from strong points scoring positions.
“The whole championship is almost entirely luck-based at the moment,” he said.
“I did an analysis on ChatGPT and if you take into account how many duels I’ve won, how many times I’ve made it to the duels, I am actually the best qualifier of the season, and I’m nowhere. So that tells you all you need to know. It’s not about pace; it’s about strategy and luck.”
CUPRA Kiro team boss, Russell O’Hagan, was clearly upset with the safety car decision, calling it “unusual, that’s not to say incorrect, but it was not in keeping with what we would expect.
“As a team, it’s our job to try and manage variables and optimise probability. A big part of that is predicting how scenarios unfold, so it’s naturally very frustrating when something atypical has such a big consequence, as it did today.,” added O’Hagan.
Ticktum’s eighth non-score from 12 races ensures that he is mired in 14th position in the standings with five races remaining, while teammate Marti maintains a 30 point advantage over his teammate having scored points in seven of the 12 rounds so far.
