Ticktum’s FE Future Under Scrutiny
Dan Ticktum’s future in Formula E is shrouded in doubt as paddock talk in recent races has pointed to the British ace unlikely to be retained by CUPRA Kiro for next season. The team is known to actively be looking at a replacement to race alongside Pepe Marti, who is set to get a second season with the team that he has so impressed with in his rookie season.
Speaking to FEN at Shanghai, Ticktum said that “I don’t know what I am doing, who knows. I haven’t been treated very well by my team. All the guys, mechanics and engineers, I love them to bits. But I haven’t been treated very well by the people at the top.”
Ticktum Penalty Controversy Explained
Formula E Notebook played an unwilling part in Dan Ticktum receiving a three place grid drop for Sunday’s race. It came after FEN reported Ticktum and Marti’s misfortune on Saturday when they were both victims of the safety car deployment just after they had taken their six-minutes of Attack Mode.
That resulted in Ticktum telling FEN his opinion of the move, which riled the FIA to the extent that they issued a sporting penalty. To read the Full Story click HERE.
FEN issued some clarity about the accuracy of the quote within the FIA decision, which can be viewed HERE.
Bright Lights, Big City
The next rounds of the 2025-26 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship at the first ever night-races in Tokyo will feature longer races than the corresponding races last year. FEN can reveal that each race will be a lap longer with the Saturday event 36 laps and Sunday’s non-PitBoost race 33 laps. This is opposed to the 35 and 32 laps races in 2025. Each of the EPrixs will begin at 20.00 local time, with qualifying scheduled for 15.40 on each day. The first free practice session will take place on Friday evening at 19.00.
Calendar Change Incoming?
A significant rumour spread across the Shanghai EPrix paddock last week regarding a possible significant change to the 2026-27 schedule. FEN understands that a possible solution to one of the Formula E/WEC clashes might be found shortly with Formula E able to move one of its races, possibly Monaco, to a different weekend. Should the Monaco EPrix dates be able to move it is thought likely that a May 1/2 running of what will be the 10th time the Monaco EPrix event has run.
Speaking to FEN last weekend, Formula E CEO, Jeff Dodds said that “If we wanted to change the Monaco date, and perhaps that is a live conversation, that change would not be ratified until it was sent to the FIA and approved by the World Motor Sport Council.”
“I think the next one is September or October time. So, even if we wanted to, and perhaps there has been a suggestion that there’s a potential to move something, it still needs to be ratified. So, until that happens, there is no move,” added Dodds.
Answering a question specifically on reducing a clash with WEC, Dodds said that “if we go from two clashes with WEC to one, I think that makes a material difference to the drivers that race in both championships. If we moved Monaco, which clashes with Spa, that would avoid a clash with one of the WEC’s blue riband races.”
Dodds also feedback on the reception that the recently announced biggest ever Formula E calendar for the first Gen4 season, which will begin at Jeddah this December, saying that “it has been overwhelmingly positive.”
“Doubling down on the USA is something we’ve talked about for a long time, and now we’ve finally done it with Miami and COTA. London has been a great home for us, but in reality we are at the limits of what’s possible with the location, and putting a Gen4 car wouldn’t have delivered the spectacle we want.
“We think Brands Hatch is perfect,” continued Dodds. “They haven’t had an F1 race there since the 1980s, and it’s an amazing circuit with a rich history, while also being close to London. It feels like a really good location for us.”
Shanghai EPrix Round-Up
New points leader Pascal Wehrlein was lauded for his pace in both dry and wet conditions last weekend as he took a 40-point haul, his biggest since his title defining performance at London ExCeL Arena in July 2024 when he claimed 43 points.
His Porsche Formula E Team boss, Florian Modlinger, said that Wehrlein “had extraordinary pace in wet, and we tried to get Nico (Mueller) behind him to follow him and to get energy advantage, but you saw that Nico could just stay with Pascal.
“He (Mueller) was not a buffer, I think. Nico was pulled by Pascal, and I think this could have worked out if it would have stayed a bit more wet, but it’s like it is, and therefore we go home with very valuable points for P4 and P7.”
In Shanghai, Envision Racing took its biggest points haul of 31 points since the 2024 London EPrix when they took 33 between Sebastien Buemi and Robin Frijns. But there was likely to have been a slightly tetchy debrief, as questions were asked about the collaboration between fifth placed Buemi and Joel Eriksson, who took his maiden podium position in third at the team’s home race.
On the choice of his strategy, Joel Eriksson told FEN that “me and my engineer (Jamie Gomeche) were very aligned before the race. 10 minutes before I went in the car, we were talking on the grid and he said he was fine with whatever (set-up) choose. We decided to go for the drier option.
“Then it’s a matter of how much you do. JEV and di Grassi went further than us, they were both very quick when the track was drying at the end. And obviously we didn’t have the same pace. But we were still flying just before the yellow, we were the fastest on track at that point, so I think we made the right call together with my engineer and I am still very proud.”
Buemi told FEN that he and Eriksson, who was not in Attack Mode when Buemi caught him in the 350kW mode late in the race “had a bit of a fight between each other, which ultimately made no sense. I think we could have done better, we could have saved energy and time, but it’s still a great result for the team and we take the points.”
Nick Cassidy’s poor Shanghai weekend, in which he finished 19th and 15th after a myriad of set-up issues put him well out of contention, meant he has now gone four races without scoring points for the first time since 2022 when a stretch from the Berlin EPrix in May through to Marrakech in late June when he raced with Envision.
Lucas di Grassi’s win came 1435 days after his last victory, his only success for Venturi at the 2022 London EPrix. The Brazilian’s 14th win ensured that he joined Sebastien Buemi and Antonio Felix da Costa as joint second in the all-time list of winners behind Mitch Evans who is on 15 wins.
Russell O’Hagan, the Team Principal of the CUPRA KIRO squad, rued the unpredictable weather across the Shanghai weekend, saying that the team were “slightly on the wrong side of the (weather) predictions, and although we adapted, maybe it just wasn’t quickly enough.
“Coming away without any points is frustrating and doesn’t reflect a lot of the positives we had across the weekend,” he added. “A big thank you to the team and drivers for the hard work and we look forward to better results in Tokyo in a few weeks. We head there with confidence and clear ambition – we want to finish the season strongly.”
Andretti moved up to third in the team’s standings, which apart from leading them after Jake Dennis’ win at the opening Sao Paulo race this season, is the highest the American team has placed since the 2022-23 season when Dennis took the title. Andretti actually started Formula E as the top placed team after Franck Montagny and Charles Pic claimed second fourth in the opening Beijing EPrix in September 2014.
Commenting on the Sunday action, which saw Felipe Drugovich take his maiden Formula E pole, albeit both the Brazilian and teammate Jake Dennis drift out of the points in the drying conditions, Team Principal Roger Griffiths said that “it all started to fall away from us as the race unfolded.
“It’s hard to protect against those that gamble with how the track conditions are going to evolve and we couldn’t know whether going with dry or wet [tyre] pressures was the right thing to do, but we need to look into our approach and how we can better evolve the strategy when conditions are changing. We are disappointed, though we have moved up into third place in the Teams’ Championship standings.”
No ‘Driver’ for Season 12
Formula E chief, Jeff Dodds, told FEN in Shanghai that a new season of the ‘Driver’ documentary is not being filmed this season. An alternative, which is believed to heavily focus on the CUPRA Kiro team is understood to be in the pipeline for the off-season this autumn.
“In the early days, before I arrived, we had something called Unplugged, a made-for-digital series. We’ve now had two series of ‘Driver’ with Prime Video,” said Dodds.
“I thought they were really good. But as we enter the Gen4 era, we are not currently, for this season, producing a series of ‘Driver’, but there is a documentary series being produced for this series, something different. It doesn’t mean we won’t go back to ‘Driver’, but for this season there is something different being produced.”
Additional reporting by Jamie Klien
