FIA announce penalty over star's X-rated remarks at race director

Photo: © IMAGO

FIA

FIA announce penalty over star's X-rated remarks at race director

Possibly engaged mouth before brain?

Chris Deeley Editor

Experienced sports writer covering F1 and other motorsports since 2023

Monday 6 July 2026 08:57

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Hey, it's another story about Dan Ticktum getting in trouble for saying the wrong thing, in the wrong way, at the wrong time!

The Cupra Kiro driver has been given a three-place grid penalty for the next FE race after quoted as saying in the media pen in Shanghai: “I don't understand why the race director just s*** himself when there was a bit of rain and called the safety car.”

Once considered a hot talent in F3 and F2, the 27-year-old former Aston Martin and Williams development driver has settled into a career in Formula E since the start of the 2021-22 season.

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The Brit, who took his first race win in the electric racing series last year, has become better known for his controversies than his results throughout his career – starting when, as a teenager, he overtook multiple rivals while under a safety car in order to deliberately crash into another driver he'd tangled with earlier in the race.

His more recent controversies have come more often as the result of things he's said, rather than done – calling Williams' Nicolas Latifi 'poo' shortly before being let go by...Williams, his repeated railing against other drivers and FIA stewards, and many more incidents.

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Stewards: Ticktum's words were vulgar

In the stewards' official explanation of their decision, they wrote: "In our view the words used by the Driver can fairly be understood to be conveying that, in the Driver’s opinion, not just that the Race Director’s decision to deploy the Safety Car during Race 12 was wrong, but that it was the result of the Race Director being so extremely panicked and caught by surprise that he lost the ability to discharge his duties properly.

"A fair-minded reader of the article in which the Driver was quoted might interpret the figurative expression by the Driver to be conveying that, in his opinion, the Race Director is incompetent.

"The statement made by the Driver might, in the Stewards’ determination, be reasonably perceived to be an insulting slur on the Race Director and humiliating to him even if they were not intended to be.

"Further, the words used were vulgar and coarse."

Ticktum has since apologised to the race director in question – although things have got even worse for him since, subsequently getting dropped a place in the Race 13 results for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage.

Not a great weekend all round, for the man who received a second formal reprimand of the season from his team just last month in Monaco.

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Formula E Dan Ticktum