We talk to Ticktum, Cupra’s fastest Formula E driver

Indeed, Ticktum tells Complete Car: “I sometimes feel I was born 50 years too late.”

There’s something in that, and it’s tempting to see Ticktum at his best as closer in spirit to the old days of Innes Ireland and Jo Siffert - elbows-out types who didn’t suffer fools gladly and regarded most others as those fools.

Or perhaps he’s more of a seventies IndyCar type. You can imagine him deeply annoying the likes of AJ Foyt and then going and slotting the car on pole.

He’s not, though. The 27-year-old Ticktum is not driving in black and white, and nor is he back in time in the seventies. In fact, he’s in the cutting edge here and now as a driver for the Cupra Kiro Formula E team, speaking to us just ahead of the season-closing London E-Prix as he faced into the last weekend of both this season and of the ‘Gen3’ all-electric racing cars.

It may just also be Ticktum’s last weekend with the Cupra Kiro team, and possibly in Formula E altogether. 

A bit of a disagreement

“I don't want to go into too much detail with my disagreements, shall we say, with my current team,” Ticktum tells Complete Car. “I haven't been treated particularly well with the letter going public and all the rest of it. And you know, there's some just lies, to be honest, in that letter, it's not particularly fair. And I don't feel like whatever I've done wrong is enough to not sign me.”

‘The letter’ refers to a supposedly private reprimand for what the team adjudged bad behaviour, which was leaked to the press, and which caused no end of embarrassment for both driver and team.

Which is a shame, as while 2026 has been another year of mixed fortunes for the Cupra Kiro squad, Ticktum did pull off a stunning win in the Tokyo E-Prix, but then couldn’t resist a jibe over the radio on the slowing down lap, asking if he could have a job now, please?

For all that, Ticktum clearly feels some loyalty to the team, which he joined when before it was taken on by the Cupra brand, and for which he has been the only race winner.

“Honestly, my goal was always to stay with the team into Gen4 and try and you know, bring the team to winning and to the podium consistently,” he continues.

There from the start with Cupra

“I’ve obviously come from this team when we were at the back, and I actually helped source the funding to purchase the team as well a couple of years ago. So I feel very invested in the team and it's a shame things have worked out the way they have this year, but I do think it's very easily resolvable. So, yeah, we just need to communicate a bit better from the top to me and vice versa, and I think we can sort things out. And yeah, I certainly want to remain in in FE, that's for sure.”

What is the ‘Gen4’ to which Ticktum refers? Ah, there’s the rub...

Formula E has been steadily evolving over its lifetime, having started with spindly-looking racing cars that didn’t have enough battery charge to complete a full race distance, so drivers had to pit to swap cars halfway through, like a Pony Express rider changing horses.

That, at least, has been ditched in recent years, but there’s still a feeling that the outgoing Gen3 cars, while striking to look at, were still lacking in outright drama and speed. 

Gen4 should change all that. The fourth-generation of Formula E car looks, and is, far larger and more muscular, closer in style and size to a current Formula One car, and not far off in power terms as well.

In fact, by switching to two motors and four-wheel drive, the Gen4 Formula E cars will have as much as 816hp in qualifying trim, and 612hp for the race.

No longer just for street circuits?

That means the cars will outgrow many of FE’s traditional tight and twisty street circuits, such as the one that winds around the London Excel exhibition centre like some kind of hulked-up indoor go-kart track.

From next year, the UK round of Formula E’s calendar will be held at Brands Hatch, not merely a ‘proper’ racing circuit, but a justifiably legendary one. 

Is that a good idea, though? Ticktum’s not 100 per cent sure if FE should be leaving its roots behind:

“I think, like where we are, London Excel, for example, the Gen4 car will be a bit ridiculous there. If money were no object, you could draw or make a street circuit that would suit a Gen4 car in London or in Paris or Rome. I've drawn a track map that goes down Pall Mall and up to Park Lane and back round, which would be absolutely fine for a Gen4 car and amazing, but it would probably cost £150 million quid a day!

“Personally I love street circuits anyway, but I also liked that it was sort of the identity of the championship a bit. So I don't think we're admitting defeat or whatever you want to call it, I think it was just a natural progression for the series.”

Goodwood performance

When it comes to these muscular new Gen4 cars, Ticktum has more experience than most, having driven an early prototype with no little vim up the hillclimb at this year’s Goodwood Festival Of Speed.

He was only beaten in the final timed runs by the great Romain Dumas, driving a hugely modified Ford Mustang Mach-E that was almost purpose-built for hill climbing.

Ticktum’s car was compromised both by its low ride height, and by the fact that it was something of a ‘bitsa’, running with the same rear-end layout as the outgoing Gen3 car.

Nonetheless, it was hold-your-breath fast, and a tremendous spectacle, and as with every racing driver, Ticktum reckons he could have gone even faster...

“It's a lot of what ifs. I don't think I could have gone much faster in that session. I think the track was obviously very dirty in the afternoon. I actually did a faster run in the morning, but I was slightly more under the limit. I did a 42.2, I think, in the morning and 42.4 in the afternoon. But I was quicker in the last sector on the last run than the earlier session. So if you put it together, it would have been very, very close...”

Ticktum didn’t pull off another win in London but did manage a solid second-row qualifying position, so now it’s down to whether the Cupra Kiro team keeps him on. It’s been a turbulent relationship, and Ticktum has played the part of villain at times, but his speed and abilities are not in doubt.

Will he stick around at Cupra?

Can a racing driver as outspoken as he remain gainfully employed in the modern, corporate era? When Disney+ has signed on to broadcast Formula E races? When image is everything?

“Formula E is obviously a championship that wants to try and create as much noise as possible. So having someone who's a bit of a character and a bit different, like me, is good for the sport, and they actively encourage me to sort of be, whatever you want to label me as a villain, or a character or whatever,” said Ticktum. “The fans want to see people’s authenticity. They want to see the drivers behave as they are. I mean, a lot of racing drivers are just boring, as characters.

“I feel like this year, with the results not being there on paper and personnel in the team changing round a little bit, I feel like I've become a bit of a scapegoat in some scenarios, to be honest, and yeah, just haven't felt the value that I feel like I deserve. They had a point with some of the disciplinary things. I don't agree with all of it, but there were certainly some things I needed to improve on, and I think in the last few races I have. So I don't see why I wouldn't be signed by this team, to be honest. But if they choose not to, then yeah, we'll see.”