All photos are courtesy of Sergio Álvarez. Interview: Sergio Álvarez.
Interview with Dan Ticktum, Team CUPRA KIRO
Sergio Álvarez: How do you think your driving style in Formula E will change with bigger and more powerful cars?
DT: I think the way to describe this car is if you’re a half-decent driver and you set the car up well, you’ll probably be there or thereabouts. But to find the last little bit is quite tough. I like to refer to it as a “skill gap” when you make your car faster and harder to drive. I’m hoping to see a bit more of a skill gap where the driver can make more difference. I think that will happen. It’s more or less double the power, we’re obviously talking 600kW here, for most people it’s over 800bhp all the time. I think it’s going to be great.
Q, FIA host: How do you look at your last few years in Formula E and before it?
DT: The first few years were highly depressing, as I’ve said many times. It was very tough mentally. I thought about giving up many times, but I’m glad I didn’t. I think I would’ve missed racing if I had (given up). I’m very proud of what the team and the investors have achieved in quite a short time. They went from the smallest outfit to having a lot of talented people and managed to turn it around pretty quickly. I certainly wasn’t on the ball at the start of the last season either with the car, it was very difficult. We weren’t very consistent, there were times when we should’ve picked up more points. Going into this year, we have a much broader and better understanding of how to set this car up consistently from track to track and we had some good updates from the software side.
Q, FIA host: Talk us through the test here in Valencia?
DT: It was pretty diabolical on the first day, if I’m honest. I can’t go into too much detail, but basically it wasn’t working at all. Due to the nature of the track and the track temp the tires have been incredibly sensitive over the last few days. It’s quite hard to (do) back-to-back things, it changes from one session to another quite a lot. We found out that this is not our track. Other than that, it’s been good. We found some trends, we got some good data on the software side to sign off and develop and it’s all gone very smoothly.
Q, FIA host: You have a new team-mate in Josep Maria Martí this year. How are you getting on?
DT: I’ve only met him once outside of Formula E, but he’s a pretty switched-on kid. It’s quite difficult to come off the Formula 1 ladder and I think he’s very enthusiastic about learning the car and he seems to have a good attitude and he wants to learn. He’s a good kid. He’s got a bit of a personality as well so I’m sure there’ll be some good content on that side. He’s fast as well. He’s done pretty well. It’s very positive.
PS We absolutely love Dan’s NASCAR redneck looks. It’s the best.
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