Britain’s controversial young racer Dan Ticktum has once again threatened to crash on purpose into a racing rival.
Back in 2015 Ticktum was banned from racing for two years after he purposely crashed into MSA Formula rival Ricky Collard under Safety Car conditions at Silverstone.
The Briton returned in 2017, and with backing from Red Bull won the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award that year and then was named the Autosport National Driver of the Year in 2018.
He was controversially dropped by Red Bull though last year after just three rounds of the Super Formula Championship.
Now a member of the Williams junior programme, Ticktum has been trying to build his career back up and form a new pathway into Formula 1.
But one way not do that is by repeating his grave error from the past. But sadly, that is what he threatened to do.
Ticktum went three-wide down Silverstone’s Hangar Straight with Artem Markelov and Louis Deletraz during Lap 15 of the F2 Feature Race, with Deletraz overtaking the pair of them.
But Ticktum then jumped on team radio and said: “Next time that ***** tries a kamikaze move like that I’m going to crash with him!
“I’m never going to give him that much respect ever again.”
That first sentence will have sent shivers down the spine of his DAMS team, and Williams who will have had flashbacks of that infamous incident from 2015.
Speaking about the incident, Peter Windsor, who was on co-commentary duties for the race, said: “Don’t say things like that Daniel, you have already crashed intentionally once in your career. You don’t need to do that again.
“Remember [Juan Manuel] Fangio and the way he used to be very calm and never griped with his mechanics, just everybody was working around him and saying the right things at the right time.
“Don’t get worked up. You [referring to Ticktum] screamed and shouted when a spark plug failed in Hungary. It’s not the team’s fault and you don’t need to do that again now.”
Sorry, I realise racing drivers grow and develop and in most cases they shouldn’t be held to task for things they do when they’re young. But some people just do not change and I really find it hard to accept Dan Ticktum ever truly will. pic.twitter.com/MKsn4zpNRD
— Rob Watts (@robwattsf1) August 8, 2020
Ticktum was shown a black and white flag by the FIA later in the race but it wasn’t the chequered one as the Brit finished a lowly P15.
This comes just a week after Ticktum won his first F2 race, and afterwards he was quick to take a swipe at Helmut Marko, chief of the Red Bull driver programme, saying that win proved he was wrong to doubt his ability.
“A lot of people will know my career hasn’t been plain sailing, let’s say,” he said.
“I think my last win was Macau 2018, or maybe I won one race in between, but last big win was back then.
“There’s a significance in that, but – [and] I don’t want to go too much into my past – obviously being dropped by Red Bull is a big blow to your career.
“So, to get yourself into a team that’s won the [teams’] championship in F2 the year after being dropped is… let’s say they believe in me, which is always a nice feeling.
“And to start delivering results as well is kind of, I don’t know [about] choice of words, I need to be careful here, but I think everyone knows what I’m getting at.
“It sort of proves his [Marko’s] doubt in me was wrong, let’s say. So, there we go – it’s a nice feeling for lots of reasons, let’s just say that.”
Follow us on Twitter @Planet_F1 and like our Facebook page.
Source: Read Full Article