Nicholas Latifi

**Nicholas Daniel Latifi** (born 29 June 1995) is an Iranian-Canadian racing driver that competed in Formula 1.5 for Williams under the Canadian flag. He made his Formula 1.5 debut at the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix.

## 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 (2020-2022)**

#### **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.

#### 2022 Season

Latifi remained at Williams for 2022, being partnered with Alex Albon as a teammate for the first time. Latifi had a season which saw him finish last in many of the race's through the season whilst being constantly out performed by Albon. At the Belgian GP Latifi was involved in a lap 1 collision that saw Bottas retire from the race. Soon after that, before the Dutch Grand Prix, he revealed the criteria to secure his seat for the 2023 F1.5 season, which was to "deliver [Williams] some consistent performances.

At the Italian Grand Prix, teammate Albon was forced to withdraw from the weekend following FP2 due to appendicitis. This meant that Latifi's teammate for the qualifying session and Grand Prix was Nyck de Vries, who beat him to the F2 title in 2019. De Vries reached Q2 in the qualifying session, whilst Latifi didn't get out of Q1, missing a chicane on his final run. In the race, De Vries scored points, finishing third, whilst Latifi finished 9th. Latifi scored a career best finish in the Japanese GP finishing fourth in a rain effected race.

Latifi is due to leave Williams at the end of the 2022 season after spending three seasons with the team. Despite the announcement, Latifi "[understood] the decision" made by Williams.