Additional reporting by Andy Stobart
Dan Ticktum's Formula E season explored new territories of misfortune at the Mexico City E-Prix on Saturday, triggering a no-holds barred reaction that developed into a kind of emotional victim impact statement.
The Cupra Kiro driver was taken out in a chain reaction that began with eventual winner Nick Cassidy tipping Antonio Felix da Costa into a slide at the bottleneck Turn 5 hairpin, with da Costa's Jaguar then spearing into Maximilian Guenther's DS Penske and Ticktum being collected on the outside.
Unlucky for Da Costa 🫣
— Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) January 10, 2026
A big moment leads to an early race-end for the Jaguar driver in Mexico City@Hankook_Sport #MexicoCityEPrix pic.twitter.com/edoxObRs7t
"They race like a bunch of children, petulant children," Ticktum initially told his engineer, Nic Morel, on team radio.
"Pathetic! I've had enough of this! It's not a category of talent."
Ticktum was one of several innocent victims in the melee, which eliminated him and da Costa, and severely damaged Guenther's car. The stewards investigated at length and deemed no further action was necessary.
Their bulletin called the contact between da Costa and Guenther "the result of several unfortunate elements" and that the initial "small contact" between Cassidy and da Costa "that contributed to the collision" was "too minor to warrant an investigation".
The stewards added that Guenther had told them that he had taken a "slightly tighter line than normal" for the hairpin, but that he was "entitled to do so", all of which added up to "a racing incident".
This was broadly in alignment with TV pundit James Rossiter's view of the accident, with the current Gen4 test driver and sporting ambassador saying there was "not really anyone to blame - just three into one that didn't work and Dan Ticktum being completely innocently taken out".
An hour later, Ticktum's upset was undimmed in the media pen, although by now it was aimed at the stewards and the race director.
"The stewarding level in this championship at the moment is just dreadful, so everyone is driving like arseholes," he told The Race.
"There's loads of half moves, loads of lunges, not necessarily all the driver's fault, really. It's just it's not being policed properly, and it's just like a rental car race."
"Da Costa hit me first a couple of laps before the incident that took me out completely, but I had lost three or four places and gets a warning for it.
"I don't know in what other championship in the world that you can hit another driver up the arse and they lose a few positions and you don't get anything for it. It's just a joke."
Ticktum has now been wiped out of both the 2025-26 season's races so far, and in each case he was in contention for potential podium finishes.
In Sao Paulo last month a front-row start ended in a puncture at the first corner via Nyck de Vries, an incident which went without a sanction for the Mahindra driver. A decision that baffled many paddock observers.
That was clearly still in Ticktum's mind after the Mexico City race, as he told The Race that "there were certain instances in Sao Paulo that the race director [Marek Hanaczewski] said that he and the stewards just full-on missed.
"Again, I don't know how that's happening at a world championship level. Yeah, we're not F1 but we call ourselves a world championship.
"I don't know what's going on with the FIA at the moment. It's either they just employ more people or pay more people, when there's this much money being invested in teams and sponsors and everything.
"You can't have stewards say to you 'I'm sorry, but we missed that.' It's just not f***ing good enough. So, something needs to change.
"I think he even said that the stewards missed that de Vries didn't stop [as mandated in the run-off] after hitting me and then his team-mate. He didn't come to a complete stop, he hit me, took me out of the race, hit his team-mate f***ed him, and then didn't stop and didn't get a penalty."
Ticktum's reaction to his unlucky demise in Mexico City was mirrored by his team principal, Russell O'Hagan, albeit in much more restrained rhetoric.
"We certainly share some of Dan's frustrations," O'Hagan told The Race.
"I think Dan's certainly right to be frustrated to have obviously come away from Sao Paulo with no points, and particularly in the manner that happened, it was massively frustrating
"I wouldn't put it all exclusively to driving standards. It's also to regulations and stewards' decisions and kind of understanding where that where the lines lie. We're certainly seeing some of the cars that are more aggressive are kind of prospering from that.
"So, it's just kind of understanding where those boundaries lies, how to maximise it, and either making sure it doesn't turn into a free for all, where all the drivers start taking more liberties, or on the flip side, where we get a really big club down on regulations. As always, it's a bit of a work in progress."
The Race says
Ticktum's post-race response to his clear misfortune is unflinchingly candid but it reflects some concerns drivers and teams have about the general driving standards in Formula E.
This is nothing new and has been a flashpoint since the Gen2 era began in 2018 when larger scale front bodywork allowed cars to be used as battering rams without too much consequence.
It has though been greatly exacerbated since 2023 when full pack-racing brewed up from the Gen3 era rules. It intensified further because the structure of the races bubbles up to a boiling point, a pin-pulling stage when the energy management and track position squabble for position yields for a flat-out blast to the flag.
Pack all that into a tight section of track - even one that had a chicane removed as Mexico City did for this year's event - and you have a fertile ground for bedlam and chaos. That is what happened at the Turn 5 complex on lap 25 on Saturday.
On this occasion it looks and feels like a genuine racing accident whereby several moves and manoeuvres were going on at the same time. It just happened to be at a corner which can act as a kind of accelerant for trouble because it has a squared-off hairpin design.
Ticktum's reaction was unadulterated frustration. By rights he should have approximately 20-25 points at least, yet he's sat there at the foot of the table with zero.
2026 is a big year for the Cupra Kiro driver, as he will be out of contract at the end of the season and in his mind he's done enough to get on the manufacturers' radar, and to have a shot at the bigger pay day that would come with it.
All that acts as a kind of fuel for him though when things go wrong. But it's more the competitive angle for Ticktum that really hurts.
Sometimes though he clearly needs to try to suppress his instinct to open his mouth without the proverbial deep breath, especially when the end result is such overt criticism of officials and also the championship itself.
He'll say that he ‘is who he is' and you can ‘like it or lump it'. That's all very well, and we all often enjoy the character he is, which in reality - away from the frustration-fuelled petulance - is a quite likeable and articulate person. But at the end of the day, he's also bringing on unnecessary grief and distractions for his team too.
The anger also sometimes boils into wild inaccuracies and ill-tempered and petulant statements like this:
"You could put any driver who's half decent, not even at Formula E level, in a race, and if they follow ‘the beeps' [energy saving prompts] and follow the strategy, and have some luck, they'll do the same job," he told The Race immediately after the debacle.
"It's just all about luck. I've just had enough really."
Ticktum has had some undoubted wretched luck. But it's not all about luck, if it was Oliver Rowland and Nick Cassidy wouldn't be making their own luck by the tonne.
Ticktum is generally a clean and meticulous driver; one blessed with outrageously potent pace. But he's not a Formula E rookie anymore and being canny, ruthless and occasionally brutal are important parts of racing in Formula E, whether he likes it or not.
