Ticktum returns to junior racing in bid for third Macau GP win

Formula E racer Dan Ticktum will return to Formula 3 next month as he attempts to win the famed Macau Grand Prix street race for a third time.

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Ticktum won the race in 2017 at the very last corner when leaders Sergio Sette Camara and Ferdinand Habsburg collided. He took a second win the year after and finished 13th in 2019 before stepping up from Formula 3.

Since then he had spent two years in Formula 2 and later progressed into FE. His surprise return to Macau on 17th-19th November with the Rodin Carlin team was revealed when the FIA published the provisional entry list for the event, which awards the FIA F3 World Cup.

Ticktum will go up against four current F2 racers: 2019 Macau GP winner Richard Verschoor and Roman Stanek teaming up at Trident, while Red Bull juniors Isack Hadjar and Zane Maloney will drive for Hitech GP and Carlin respectively.

A total of 14 drivers who contested the full FIA F3 championship this year will race in Macau, potentially putting them at an advantage since they know the Dallara F3 2019 car well. Prema will running F1 juniors Paul Aron, Dino Beganovic and Gabriele Mini, who will likely be their 2024 FIA F3 line-up.

Other championship front-runners include Franco Colapinto at MP Motorsport and the combination of Oliver Goethe and Pepe Marti at Campos Racing.

New Euroformula champion Noel Leon will race for Van Amersfoort Racing. McLaren junior Ugo Ugochukwu will make his F3-level debut with Trident as he steps up from Formula 4 where he was won the Euro 4 title and come second in the Italian F4 championship.

PHM Racing, which races in the FIA F3 Championship, will not attend the Macau Grand Prix and therefore the race will have a grid of 27 cars.

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Number	Driver	Team
1	Richard Verschoor	Trident
2	Roman Stanek	Trident
3	Ugo Ugochukwu	Trident
5	Maxwell Esterson	Jenzer
6	Charlie Wurz	Jenzer
7	Matias Zagazeta	Jenzer
8	Dino Beganovic	Prema
9	Gabriele Mini	Prema
10	Paul Aron	Prema
11	Luke Browning	Hitech
12	Isack Hadjar	Hitech
14	Hitech Pulse-Eight	Hitech
15	Josep Maria Marti	Campos
16	Sebastian Montoya	Campos
17	Oliver Goethe	Campos
18	Noel Leon	Van Amersfoort
19	Sophia Florsch	Van Amersfoort
20	Tommy Smith	Van Amersfoort
21	Gregoire Saucy	ART
22	Christian Mansell	ART
23	Nikola Tsolov	ART
24	Zane Maloney	Rodin Carlin
25	Dan Ticktum	Rodin Carlin
26	TBC	Rodin Carlin
27	Franco Colapinto	MP
28	Mari Boya	MP
29	TBC	MP

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8 comments on “Ticktum returns to junior racing in bid for third Macau Grand Prix win”

AB
25th October 2023, 10:56

Oh please stop giving this guy column inches.

MichaelN
25th October 2023, 13:05
Money. It’s all about money in motorsport.
If you have it, you can – evidently – always find some seat to showcase your lack of talent or class, whichever seems more appropriate.
1. Shimks (@shimks)
  26th October 2023, 10:06
  I never could stand Ticktum but as soon as he was dropped by Williams in 2021 as their reserve and development driver I started to miss him. I’m not sure why – maybe I missed the laughable controversy he created. His in-cockpit screaming complaints about other drivers or the car not behaving properly, were a mainstay in F2. Singing “Doo be doo be doo, Latifi is poo” during a Twitch livestream was just the excuse Williams needed to get rid of Ticktum after his poor performances in his 2nd and 3rd seasons in F2 and his continuous poor attitude on and off the track. (Latifi was a Williams F1 driver at the time.)
  Ticktum couldn’t afford any more mishaps following the shocking incident in 2015. The then 16-year-old was given a two-year racing ban (one year suspended) for what the Motor Sports Association deemed “a disturbing and dangerous episode”. In race three at the Silverstone round of the MSA Formula championship, Ticktum and Ricky Collard were involved in a first lap incident that dropped Ticktum to the back of the field. The safety car was brought out. Still under the safety car on Lap 3, Ticktum ignored 13 yellow flags, four double-yellow flags, and 15 safety-car boards in order to overtake 10 cars so that he could crash deliberately into Collard.
  Ticktum’s downfall is his own fault because he never learnt from his mistakes. In 2020, whilst racing for DAMS in the F2 Feature Race at Silverstone, he even went as far as threatening a similar action to his 2015 debacle. After being overtaken by Deletraz at Hangar Straight, Ticktum shouted over team radio
  “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.”
  When I think back on all this, I realise I don’t miss Dan Ticktum at all.