Dan Ticktum is poised to sign with Fortescue Zero Racing and partner Taylor Barnard in Formula E’s Gen 4 era.
Ticktum, 27, has driven for one team since moving on from Formula 2 in 2021. It raced as NIO 333, then ERT, then Kiro Race Co, and has run as Cupra Kiro for the past two seasons. This puts Ticktum at 81 starts, two wins, three podiums, three poles and 188 points with his previous team.
Both wins came in Kiro’s Porsche-powered car. The first, at Jakarta in June 2025, was his 60th start and the team’s first victory since 2015. The second, at Tokyo on July 25, came from sixth on the grid. He pitted early, took Attack Mode early, and passed Jake Dennis on the final lap after the Andretti driver experienced an issue with his car.
The 25/26 season brought as much friction as speed. He finished just 15th with 62 points and four retirements.
He started both Monaco races in May from pole and left having scored just six points, the bonus for the pole positions. After a 33-second penalty in the first race, a converted drive-through for hitting Antonio Felix da Costa while defending third, he left the circuit. He was also fined for missing media duties.
Cupra Kiro issued its second formal reprimand of the season in June. The first followed Mexico City in January, when his comments led Formula E chief executive Jeff Dodds to summon him for talks.
Ticktum has said he considers some of the team’s complaints, such as wearing team kit in the paddock, trivial. He has also said he was unhappy with how the team had handled his contract.
The relationship is thought to have completely broken down following the London finale in August. Although until relatively recently there were discussions within the Kiro team about re-signing Ticktum, these ultimately fell apart again after it became apparent that Ticktum had received offers from elsewhere; in addition to Fortescue Zero, these are thought to have been Lola and “NewCo”.
Ticktum spent the offseason looking. In late August, he spent two days in Lola Yamaha’s Gen4 development car at Gaudix, Spain, the first time he had driven a Formula E car for a team other than his own. Lola had two vacant seats following Lucas di Grassi’s retirement and Zane Maloney’s move to Nissan.
Fortescue Zero is the electric-technology arm of Australian mining group Fortescue. It supplies Pit Boost fast-charging to Formula E and became Fortescue Zero after the group purchased Williams Advanced Engineering in 2022.
In September, it bought Jay Penske’s operation, which began as Dragon Racing in 2014 and last raced as DS Penske. Fortescue holds the majority stake, with Penske thought to have kept a minority share.
It will race using Jaguar’s Gen4 powertrain under a multi-year deal, bringing Jaguar-powered cars to six on the grid alongside the works team and Envision. Jim Wright, whose past employers include Williams, Toro Rosso, Virgin, Mahindra, Venturi and Andretti, is team principal.
Fortescue are unlikely to run their car for the first time until at least the unofficial first pre-season test in November.
As for Ticktum’s new teammate. He and Barnard already have a bit of history between them. At Tokyo in 2025, Ticktum passed Barnard to take his first podium. At Shanghai on May 31, 2025, he started 21st, climbed to fourth and tried to pass Barnard for second at the final chicane before Jean-Eric Vergne took both. Ticktum complained about Barnard’s defending and the kerbs. Barnard said that others had got in each other’s way.
Three weeks later at Jakarta, Barnard beat him by five thousandths of a second in a qualifying duel, and Ticktum went on to win the race. The second season of Prime Video’s Formula E: Driver, released Nov. 28, 2025, captured the rivalry, including an expletive-laden Ticktum description of Barnard. Barnard replied that he does not take Ticktum’s interview remarks too seriously.
Barnard, 22, arrives with the stronger recent form. He won the London finale on Aug. 16 from sixth on the grid with a late Attack Mode charge, becoming the youngest winner in series history at 22 years and 76 days. It was DS Penske’s first podium of the season.
His contract was not part of Fortescue’s purchase, and his future was not secure until Monday. Wright called him “exactly the kind of driver a new team wants to build around” and cited his speed, discipline and racecraft.
On one-lap speed the two look evenly matched. Ticktum has three poles, and Barnard took two in his first full season. The harder question is the garage: Fortescue would be pairing a driver it describes as disciplined with one reprimanded twice in a season.
A Ticktum signing would make Fortescue’s line-up all-British and bring the number of British drivers confirmed or reported for Gen4 to at least six, with Dennis at Andretti, Oliver Rowland at Nissan, Hughes at Kiro, Zak O’Sullivan at Envision and Barnard.
After London, the FIA moved to ban instructions between teams in the Gen4 era. Team orders inside a single team stay legal. The ruling came after Ticktum, a Porsche customer, helped a Porsche factory driver in qualifying.
Fortescue is a Jaguar customer, as is Envision. If the rule is enforced as described, Jaguar could not ask its customers for the kind of help Porsche received in London. Orders between Barnard and Ticktum themselves would remain allowed.
