CAN TICKTUM GET TO F1 IN 2019?

If Dan Ticktum manages to secure a superlicence and a Formula 1 graduation with Red Bull by the end of 2018 he will have completed an amazing career turnaround in three years.

Ticktum was a Red Bull Athlete in his first year of car racing in 2015, but spent ’16 on the sidelines while serving a ban from racing for that incident in MSA Formula. Red Bull stood by him. After returning in late ’16, he was made a fully fledged Red Bull Junior for last year, won in Formula Renault Eurocup and then triumphed in the Macau Grand Prix.

Now he’s winning races in European Formula 3, and Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko is positively giddy with enthusiasm for his “crazy but fast” protege. Marko says Ticktum will be ready for F1 in 2019, and that puts him in the frame to take Brendon Hartley’s Toro Rosso seat. The problem is he must meet the current FIA requirement of earning 40 superlicence points to be allowed to race in F1, and he cannot get to that tally this year, even with Euro F3 success.

But the FIA reviews its superlicence criteria each year. So, changes could be made that make Ticktum eligible, such as making Macau – the FIA F3 World Cup – a points-scoring event, or offering more points for Euro F3 success.

Ticktum may need the rub of the green to get his F1 shot, but the old cliche says you make your own luck. He served his punishment. He is maturing all the time. He gained personal vindication last year winning Macau and the Mclaren Autosport BRDC Award. He is repaying Red Bull’s faith this year. If Marko’s convinced Ticktum can handle F1, that’s good enough for me.