Williams says reserve driver Dan Ticktum is dropped after Latifi 'poo' jibe

Williams has confirmed that it has dropped development driver Dan Ticktum with immediate effect.

The British driver has been racing in Formula 2 during 2021 under the Williams umbrella, and will continue to do so but is no longer part of the team’s Formula 1 test and reserve line-up despite a promising campaign.

The news emerged after Ticktum was heard singing a ditty where he described Williams driver Nicholas Latifi as “poo” during a livestream on the gaming platform Twitch. The F2 driver then claimed that he had left Williams before broadcasting the song.

Ticktum joined Williams ahead of the 2020 season after being let go by Red Bull in 2019 during his efforts to secure an F1 super license racing in the Japanese Super Formula.

The 22-year-old is currently sat in fourth position in the F2 standings on 89 points. He has secured one victory so far in 2021 and a further four podium finishes for Carlin.

There has been no confirmation from the team about why Ticktum was released.

Ticktum maintains that the decision to part ways was mutual and coincidentally announced following the broadcast, while he was playing the Call of Duty: Warzone game.

“Doo be doo be doo, Latifi is poo,” he sang. “Why does that still make me laugh?”

He then responded to a viewer who pointed out that Ticktum was in F2 while Latifi was in F1, saying “He’s older than me. He paid to get there.”

With the chance at one of the two possible Williams seats potentially available for the 2022 season gone, Ticktum will now have a tough time finding any available avenue to secure a seat in F1.

Disciplinary issues have plagued his career to this point. In 2015, he was handed a two-year ban (one year suspended) for overtaking ten cars while ignoring 13 yellow flags, four double-yellow flags and 15 safety-car boards, to catch up with Ricky Collard and deliberately crash into him.

He resumed his career in 2017 in fine form, winning the McLaren BRDC Autosport Award as well as his first Macau Grand Prix. He finished the European F3 championship as runner-up to Mick Schumacher, though made claims the German had received controversial assistance to do so in another social media outburst.

With F1 potentially back on the cards, he jumped over to Japanese Super Formula in order to secure the super license points needed to race in Formula 1 though endured a miserable campaign and was eventually dropped by Red Bull in 2019. Ticktum suspected a damaged chassis had hampered his performance.

He was picked up by Williams ahead of the 2020 F1 season though that link has now ended, leaving him on the outside looking in for an F1 future in 2022.