F1 team releases driver after trash-talking teammate during Warzone Twitch stream
ActivisionF1 team Williams Racing have released driver Dan Ticktum after he trash-talked a teammate while streaming Warzone on Twitch.
Smack-talking and Call of Duty have gone together since day one. But, it’s usually in-game teammates or enemies most likely to be on the receiving end.
Formula 2 driver Dan Ticktum seemed to decide to call out a teammate on his Williams Racing F1 team during an August 1 Warzone stream instead.
According to Ticktum, this wasn’t what caused Williams racing to release him. But, the team confirmed to F1.com that he was gone on August 3, without no statement otherwise.
In the video above you can clearly see Ticktum criticizing his Williams teammate Nicholas Latifi. After a viewer pointed out Latifi was in F1 while Ticktum was in F2. The driver couldn’t help but respond.
“He’s older than me, he paid to get there. Moron, f**king idiot,” he replied. “It’s not like divisions, it’s not like League One, and the Premier League you come up through the ranks. Just because you don’t get to Formula one in motorsport, doesn’t mean you weren’t good enough to get there.”
A Twitch stream gone wrong, or just poor timing?
After the news broke Ticktum posted on Instagram to say he knew he was getting released by Williams before what he called “the recent Latifi related incident.”
“Myself and Williams parted ways before the recent Latifi related incident just so people know,” Ticktum said on Instagram after the news broke. “It wasn’t announced until now as there was no option for an F1 seat in 2022 for me.”
While the timing of the Warzone trash-talk and the announcement might be unfortunate, that really might be all it is. Ticktum seemed to know he was leaving the team, which might explain his comments on Twitch in the first place.
The 22-year-old’s career is far from over. He’s still racing in F2 for team Carlin, where he’s ranked fourth overall, and could very well be seen in F1 before too long as well.
