Ticktum remains 'sour' after being dropped by Red Bull

Dan Ticktum has admitted to still being “sour” at Red Bull for how the team handled dropping him from their ranks, saying they never really had confidence he could succeed.

In 2018, Ticktum finished third in the championship in Formula 3 and retained his prestigious Macau Grand Prix title, subsequently showing Red Bull enough for them to put him into Super Formula.

However, after scoring just one point in three races, he lost his seat with Mugen and also the backing of Red Bull, who dropped him as a junior driver.

He has since signed a development deal with Williams and is competing in Formula 2, but he says the way the situation was handled by Red Bull leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

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“There’s all sorts of speculation and the team saying, ‘He needs to get used to Japan, he needs to get used to the tracks there’, but at the end of the day it’s a track and a race car, you know?” the 20-year-old told Motorsport.com.

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s in Japan or on the moon.

“I didn’t feel like the team had a lot of confidence in me, let’s say that. But there we go. It is a bit strange for a team not to have confidence in a driver that Red Bull put in an F1 car.

“But it’s all done - I’ve learned a lot from it. People are going to ask, ‘Am I still sour about being dropped?’ And yeah, of course I am, but I’m in a very good position now.”

In 2015, Ticktum received a two-year ban from all motorsport competition after purposefully overtaking during a safety car period so he could crash into rival, Ricky Collard.

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