Nicholas Latifi was involved in the fight for the Formula 1 title at last year’s season finale in Abu Dhabi. After he crashed his car, the safety car left the track and a series of events began that cost, Lewis Hamilton, the victory in the race and another title. No one from the world of motorsport even began to suspect Latifi that he crashed into the bumpers on purpose. However, this did not prevent individual fans on social networks from writing threatening messages to the Canadians. At the presentation of the new 2022 Williams livery, Latifi admitted that he was even forced to hire bodyguards.
Spoiled vacation and support
On the final laps of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Nicholas Latifi crashed the car thereby causing the appearance of a safety car. Thanks to this, Max Verstappen was able to overtake Lewis Hamilton at the restart and win the championship title. Some social media users considered the Canadian to be guilty of the events that took place at Yas Marina: after the race, various malicious comments began to be sent to Latifi’s address, including death threats.
“It may seem silly to many, but you never know how serious these threats are,” Latifi said. “At the airport, you might run into a drunk fan of another pilot, or just meet someone who is under the influence of drugs or who had something terrible happen in their life like losing all on https://www.source.bet/ before meeting you. Of course, it’s a one in million chance. But after that race in Abu Dhabi, I came to London and preferred to appear in public places with security. We went on vacation with my girlfriend and also preferred to have security with us. It sounds ridiculous and stupid, but it is better to take threats seriously than to ignore and suffer. Unfortunately, that’s how the world works,” he said.
Latifi also talked about the support from Hamilton and other members of the Formula 1 community. “Hamilton sent me a message after Abu Dhabi, and I also received support from Mercedes. In general, all the support that I saw in social networks from various pilots helped me a lot. Everyone understood everything correctly, except for individual network haters,” said the Williams driver.
How Latifi recovered from fan threats
More than a month and a half later, Nicholas is ready to admit that he has almost completely recovered from the Internet attack. “I already feel that everything is over,” Latifi said. “It hasn’t been an easy few days, but that’s part of the sport. As I mentioned in my post, I was expecting something similar after the race. Of course, when the season goes on and something more important happens that people will talk about, then this whole story will be completely forgotten. For me, that’s all in the past.”