The Williams F1 Team announced earlier this week that development driver Dan Ticktum had been dropped, with the Grove-based constructor not offering an explanation as to why they had decided to terminate their relationship.
The move came hot on the heels of Ticktum insulting Nicholas Latifi, who has raced with Williams in Formula 1 since the start of last season, during a Twitch stream.
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Specifically, the Formula 2 driver sang: “Do-be-do-be-do, Latifi is poo, Rosberg is a cheat.”
He then repeated “Latifi is a poo” and said, “why does that still make me laugh?”
Reacting to his comments, a Twitch viewer wrote in the public chat: “I mean he’s in F1, you’re in F2.”
Ticktum then read out the comment and fired back: “I mean he’s older than me, he paid to get there.”
He then called the commenter a “moron” and a “f**king idiot” before kicking him off his Twitch channel.
“I’m bored, go away, like I don’t want someone like that on my f**king channel. Goodbye,” Ticktum added.
He then told a friend who he was playing with that he “rather be the best in F2 than the worst in F1”, adding that it’s “not like divisions, it’s not like League 1 and the Premier League, where you come up through the ranks.
“And just because you don’t get to Formula 1 in motorsport it doesn’t mean you weren’t good enough to get there, you know what I mean?”
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Amid speculation that it was this incident which led to Williams axing him, Ticktum took to Instagram to insist that this isn’t the case.
“Myself and Williams parted ways before the recent Latifi incident, just so people know,” Ticktum wrote in an Instagram post.
“It wasn’t announced until now as there was no option for an F1 seat in 2022 for me.
“Thank you to Williams for the opportunity! Hope to work together in the future!” he added.
Latifi scored his first F1 points at last weekend’s Hungarian GP, with him finishing in P7, one place ahead of his team-mate, George Russell.
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