CUPRA KIRO makes progress in Jeddah
CUPRA KIRO shows promise in Jeddah as Formula E touches down in Saudi Arabia for first double-header event of 2025
CUPRA KIRO navigated a challenging opening race to the double-header 2025 Jeddah E-Prix as the FIA Formula E World Championship resumed its 2024/25 season in Saudi Arabia.
The Report
When the action commenced, Dan Ticktum, David Beckmann, and rookie driver, Mikkel Jensen – who joined the team for FP0 – established a clear performance baseline throughout practice while also testing Pit Boost ahead of its debut in Race 1.
With evident pace in the CUPRA KIRO package, Dan executed an encouraging Qualifying, progressing to the duels and ultimately lining up eighth. David experienced a more challenging session placing 18th having shown good pace but not quite putting the perfect lap together.
In the race, both drivers secured a clean start and while Dan maintained his place inside the top 10, David worked his way up the order, moving into 15th on lap one before running was paused by a Safety Car on lap seven.
While the neutralisation bunched up the field, the action was quickly resumed, and Dan took advantage to move into sixth place while continuing to hunt down the top five.
The Briton elected to box for Pit Boost – a mandatory 600kW energy boost to provide cars with a 10% increase in energy – on lap 16 but a technical issue requiring a car reset ahead of the charge unfortunately cost him valuable time and relegated him to the rear of the field.
David, meanwhile, chose to stay out and used Attack Mode to rise up the order and briefly take the lead before taking Pit Boost on lap 19 after utilising an overcut strategy. After his stop, the German rejoined in 15th.
In the closing stages, both Dan and David used their remaining Attack Mode activations to move up the order, but with the laps waning, struggled to make progress, with David claiming 14th while Dan took 19th at the line.
Formula E’s 2024/25 season will continue on Saturday 15 February 2025 with the second part of the 2025 Jeddah E-Prix.
Hear from CUPRA KIRO
Alex Hui, Team Principal, CUPRA KIRO
“Today’s race is a tough one to take, especially after showing so much potential so far this weekend. Since our first time on track, the car has been in a good performance window, and we saw that first-hand in Qualifying with Dan advancing to the duels. Unfortunately, an issue on his car ahead of the Pit Boost cost us what was a likely points finish. With David, we decided to put him on an overcut strategy, and he showed good promise and was able to stage a decent recovery late in the race. This weekend has shown that we’ve taken some good steps forward since Mexico City, and we’re getting closer to where we want to be. Tonight, we’ll comb over our data, refine our performance, and come back fighting tomorrow.”
Russell O’Hagan, Chief Operating Officer, CUPRA KIRO
“Although we’re leaving today without any points on the board, we’ve had an encouraging weekend so far in Jeddah. In comparison to where we were in Mexico, our pace is better and we’re in a position we can fight from. Dan did an excellent job today with the duel appearance and would have been on for a points finish if it wasn’t for the time loss during the pit stop. For David he delivered well in the race but we always had our work cut out to fight forward to points. We are looking forward to another day and second race tomorrow to execute on some solid potential.”
Dan Ticktum, Driver, CUPRA KIRO
“I think we’ve made a good step forward since Mexico, and the car is in a much stronger window this weekend. Today was my first time in the duels this season, but in the race we had a battery fault which meant I had to reset the car in the pit lane before taking Pit Boost. This meant we lost 20 seconds, and that was the end of the race. It was a shame because I was consuming less energy than the guys in front of me when I was sixth. Without the problem, we could have finished very well today.”
David Beckmann, Driver, CUPRA KIRO
“Overall, I’m frustrated with today’s race, but I think we still showed a lot of potential. I had a decent start and made up some places over the opening laps, but during the next phase, we struggled to maintain our pace. I felt like a top 10 finish could have been possible today, but it was still a decent race with positives to take. With another race tomorrow, we can learn from today, execute a good Qualifying, and finish well.”
