Nicholas Daniel Latifi (born 29 June 1995) is an Iranian-Canadian racing driver currently competing in Formula 1.5 for Williams under the Canadian flag. He made his Formula 1.5 debut at the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix.
Contents
Personal Life[]
Latifi is the son of Michael Latifi, an Iranian-Canadian businessman who is the CEO of Sofina Foods, Inc. and also owns a British Virgin Islands company Nidala. Michael Latifi invested through Nidala £200 million (around US$270 million) in the McLaren Group.
F1.5 Career[]
Pre-2020[]
Latifi was a test driver for Racing Point, Force India and Williams. He went on to participate in a few practice sessions in 2018 and 2019, starting with the 2018 Canadian GP.
Williams (2020-)[]
2020 Season[]
Latifi was due to make his debut in F1.5 with Williams at the Australian GP, however this was pushed back to July at the Austrian GP due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. Latifi's teammate is George Russell. Latifi started the season by scoring on his debut, finishing 9th. At the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, he set the fastest lap of the race, after pitting for fresh tyres towards the end of the race.
Nicholas took his second batch of points during the season at Italy, benifitng from two red flags and a safety car. One race later Latifi took his first F1.5 retirment after being caught up in a high speed crash which saw multiple cars retire. At Imola, Latifi finished 9th, whilst he took his final points of the season at Bahrain finishing 10th. Overall, Latifi finished his debut season in 17th place in the championship with 7 points, six points less than teammate George Russell.
2021 Season[]
Williams retained Latifi alongside Russell for the 2021 season. Latifi retired from the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix with a turbocharger issue. At the following race, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, he achieved his career-best qualifying position with 10th place. He did not finish the race after a collision with Nikita Mazepin. A string of disappointing results followed, until the chaotic Hungarian Grand Prix where he was able to finish a career best position of 6th, even running on the podium for the initial part of the race. He followed that up immediately with a 8th place finish in qualifying at the following round, and as the race was cancelled after 3 laps, he finished 7th and scored 3 points (as half-points were awarded). In Italy, he would score points again with a 9th place finish, amounting to a total of 13 points in 2021 thus far.
At the season ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Latifi was battling with Mick Schumacher when he crashed out of the race on lap 53, causing the safety car to be deployed. This Safety Car period has been accused of 'fixing' the F1.0 title decider. Latifi subsequently apologized for the incident, for which he was the target of threats and hate messages from fans on social media. On 21 December, he released a statement on his website adressing the online abuse he received, which he described as "shocking – and something I am calling out."
Latifi finished the season 14th in the standings with 15 points.
Results[]
| Year | Team | Grand Prix | Points | Pos. | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | ||||
| 2020 | Williams | AUT
|
STY
|
HUN
|
GBR
|
70A
|
ESP
|
BEL
|
ITA
|
TUS
|
RUS
|
GER
|
POR
|
EMI
|
TUR
|
BAH
|
SAK
|
UAE
|
7 | 17th | |||||
| 9 | 13 | 15 | 11 | 15 | 14 | 12 | 9 | Ret | 12 | 12 | 14 | 9 | Ret | 10 | Ret | 13 | |||||||||
| 2021 | Williams | BHR
|
EMI
|
POR
|
ESP
|
MON
|
AZE
|
FRA
|
STY
|
AUT
|
GBR
|
HUN
|
BEL‡
|
NED
|
ITA
|
RUS
|
TUR
|
USA
|
MEX
|
BRA
|
QAT
|
KSA
|
UAE
|
15 | 14th |
| Ret | Ret | 14 | 12 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 12 | 6 | 7 | 12 | 9 | 15 | 13 | 11 | 13 | 12 | Ret | 9 | 12† | ||||
