Ticktum showed his best and worst at a critical time

Dan Ticktum took commanding pole positions for both Monaco Formula E races.

But the first ended with a podium lost to a penalty for colliding with Antonio Felix da Costa, then a fine for missing media commitments as he furiously left the track.

And in race two there were more radio rants as he tumbled out of the points.

In this section from this week's episode of The Race Formula E podcast, Sam Smith gives his take on the two sides of Ticktum on show in Monaco - and the implications.

Sam Smith on The Race Formula E Podcast

His qualifying laps were outrageously good. Otherworldly and just absolutely exquisite. It's a combination of controlled aggression and silky smooth rotation - such as the smoothness around Mirabeau and the Loews hairpin. He was just on rails, beautifully quick. The way that he went through the Nouvelle chicane was extraordinary. Just visibly quicker than anyone else, visibly closer to the barrier.

So you look at that Dan Ticktum, and then you look at the fractious Dan Ticktum who 'rearranges' his driver's room and doesn't apologise for an incident he was mostly to blame for.

It is such a confusing picture, but it's one we've seen and heard so many times before. He is one of the most exasperating drivers I think I've ever known. Away from the high-adrenaline-fuelled, slightly devil-may-care and may I say often a little bit arrogant Ticktum, he's a lovely guy and can be very erudite.

A senior member of a rival Formula E manufacturer told me recently he would love the challenge of working with Dan Ticktum and trying to make him into a more polished, more refined, professionally and corporately responsible racing driver of the modern age - which you just have to be, whatever your character. And this person said they would be very determined to do it and were confident they could change Ticktum. But of course that manufacturer just won't ever take the risk on Ticktum. They can't afford to.

And I'm not sure you can change Ticktum. And would you want to change Dan Tictum? The only person who can change Dan Ticktum really is Dan Ticktum. 

If he could ever get a chance with a manufacturer, the risk element is significant because he can't control what he says. He said the same things after Monaco that he said after Mexico - when he was summoned to see championship boss Jeff Dodds for a quiet chat about essentially bringing the championship into a bit of disrepute. 

In a competitive car - a Nissan or a Mahindra or a Jaguar - last weekend, he would have won both races. I'm absolutely convinced about that.

But within the Cupra Kiro team there's some patience that's being exhausted, and it's just at the wrong time as teams are putting together their plans for next season. And with the Gen4 car coming, a lot of drivers from Formula 2 or with Formula 1 experience who are in a bit of a career void at the moment are looking at this higher-downforce and grippier new Formula E car which may suit them.

Ticktum and Da Costa's own takes

Ticktum believes that the incident between himself and da Costa did not warrant a drivethrough penalty - which was converted into a time penalty and dropped him from third on the road to 12th.

As Ticktum's race from pole position began to unravel last Saturday, his mood was decaying by the corner. Minutes after he took the chequered flag he rearranged his driver's room equipment to dissipate his anger and then left the track immediately. He did not speak to either his team, da Costa or the media (the latter of which meant he received a €1000 fine for absconding from his duties). 

But The Race has learned that the Cupra Kiro driver did WhatsApp message Jaguar driver da Costa and the pair have also since spoken about the incident. 

Da Costa was still vocal in the Sunday post-race press conference, saying: "We're all entitled to mistakes, and when people make mistakes and they come and apologise, I've got no problems with that. 

"But the kid really believes that he did nothing wrong. So that really disappointed me, to be honest. The move itself is bad, but what happened, the three laps leading up to that point was really bad also.

"I just expected more from him, and even though he was wrong, in my opinion, I was just expecting an apology, and that didn't happen." 

When asked if his relationship with Ticktum might be something that will be "resolved over time", da Costa replied: "I don't think so, no, unfortunately. I like Dan, I used to like Dan, it's unfortunate." 

Ticktum, speaking minutes later to The Race, opined that he could "understand arguments both ways but I don't believe it's worthy of a drivethrough".

"I don't believe I possess a large portion of blame for that incident, if I'm honest," he said.

"Obviously the track goes to the right, but I come out the tunnel, I go to the right, and as soon as I get to the brow of the hill, where we all brake early to recoup energy, I brake in a dead straight line.

"You can see it on my steering, and just before he hits me, I actually turn slightly to the right, because I can see he's going for the move. 

"Also, there's at least another half-a-car's width or whatever to the wall, so he was never going to make that corner, even if he didn't hit me. I don't know what the stewards were doing.

"I think if it's at another track, the incident looks far less spectacular, because we're at Monaco, and it's the walls and everything. I think it was ambitious [from da Costa]. I didn't even expect him to go for a move; he was miles back."

When asked if he had spoken to da Costa, Ticktum added that he would "congratulate him today" for his third place in the second race but added "I don't think it's my fault". 

How Ticktum's Monaco races fell apart 

A brace of pole positions will be all that will be remembered when it comes to posterity for Ticktum's 2026 Monaco E-Prix, but they deserved to be recalled as two of the finest Formula E has seen.

The fact that Ticktum came away from Monaco with just six points, while his much slower over one lap team-mate Pepe Marti claimed 15 for his elevated third place on Saturday, paints its own picture.

Ticktum felt that he pitted too late in Saturday's race and that overall, the strategic management and adaptation to his Porsche 99X Electric struggling with overheating tyres were his downfall.

"The races have been disastrous. The strategy has not been terrible, but it's been pretty average in both races, I think, so there's some improvements we need to make on strategy," he told The Race.

"The objective of Saturday's race was to slow everything down, get the targets up, so it's harder for them to overtake at the end. What we should have done is just boxed early and stayed in the lead or in the top three."

That may have been more inefficient, but overall, the energy targets had already come up by that point, meaning that it would have likely been harder for Ticktum's rivals to overtake and gain track position over him.

All of the Porsche cars seem to struggle at Monaco with the factory team scoring just eight points for Nico Mueller's sixth on Sunday, although Andretti's Felipe Drugovich found a sweet spot across the weekend and was competitive in qualifying and the races, taking second place in the second race. 

"We've tried a number of things this weekend, and it all ends up in the same place, more or less," said Ticktum.

"There's some things we need to look at going forward. When [Edoardo] Mortara picked up the pace quite early [on Sunday] I could barely stay with the guy and our traction was so poor compared to them."

Ticktum's second race from pole dissolved to nothing as he struggled again with grip and then received a penalty for a full course yellow procedure infraction. As he was about to pit he was also hit by Jake Dennis's Andretti-Porsche. 

"He put me in the wall at the exit of Turn 6 [Mirabeau]. And then I had a damaged wheel rim. I tried to keep going, but apparently I had some penalty for FCY, so we thought it would be better to serve that from the pits [rather than take it to the next race in Sanya]."