A promising race ended in a missed opportunity for Dan Ticktum at the first race of the 2025 Monaco E-Prix doubleheader, after P3 in qualifying culminated in a P7 finish.
On-track contact with race winner Oliver Rowland and podium finisher Nyck de Vries saw Ticktum drop out of podium contention in the opening stages of the race.
Ticktum held no punches when asked about his experience on track. “Congrats to [Rowland], big fan of Ollie, but he nearly got me in the wall at Turn 1 at the start, which was a little bit on the edge,” he told Formula E Zone.
“Then [Nyck] De Vries got past, and De Vries is just, you know, a lot of people will agree and I’ll say it, he’s probably one of the dirtiest drivers on the grid. So he put me off the track, didn’t get a penalty, and that was sort of my race over really.
“From then on, I got put on the inside of the concertina at Fairmont, then I got overtaken by four cars in three corners. So my race was done.”
Two Full Course Yellows (FCY) added insult to injury, throwing Ticktum out of sequence with the optimal Pit Boost window. However, Brit was quick to rule Pit Boost out as a “determining factor” in his finishing position.
“It’s a bit like Macau in F3, these races can go your way or they can’t,” said Ticktum.
“Obviously I don’t agree with someone like [Nico] Müller who was able to Pit Boost under FCY and gain half a minute. I think that’s ridiculous. But that’s the nature of it. You know, it could have happened to me.”
Although the team missed out on what could have been a podium, Ticktum’s P7 marked Cupra Kiro’s fourth points finish in six races. Ticktum maintained that there were “absolutely” positives to take away from Saturday’s race in the Principality.
“One of our main concerns this year is our one lap pace hasn’t quite been good enough, obviously that’s a bit different today,” Ticktum said, having consistently been one of the fastest cars on track throughout free practice and qualifying.
“Yes, Monaco’s a bit more about the driver, but also the car’s been good. Overall, pretty happy, just a shame it couldn’t quite go my way in the race.”
Looking ahead to Sunday’s race, Ticktum anticipated a trickier outing as rival teams look to build their learnings from race one into their strategy.
“Our car’s in a good window, but I don’t think there’s much more to come from it,” he said. “I think the Nissan and the McLaren are a bit quicker, I think the potential of that car is a bit more than ours at the moment.
“I can’t really see where we can find that much more time. I think others will improve tomorrow, so it could be a bit of a harder day, but I think the targets will be lower, it’ll be a bit more about efficiency and strategy in the race, so we’ll see.”
Image credit: Simon Galloway / LAT Images for Formula E
