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Nicholas Latifi has not been in his best form this year. Williams team boss Jost Capito recently spoke on the High Performance podcast and revealed that the 2021 F1 Abu Dhabi GP incident has affected Latifi's driving.
Last year, in the season finale in Abu Dhabi, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton were fighting for the championship. In the closing stages of the race, Lewis Hamilton was leading the race and was on track to win the championship when Latifi crashed and Safety Car came out.
When the Safety Car ended, Max Verstappen on fresher tires overtook Lewis Hamilton and won the 2021 F1 drivers championship. Nicholas Latifi's crash affected the title race and fans trolled the Canadian driver on social media.
Jost said the incident affected Nicholas Latifi and because there was a break after the race, the team could not help the driver get over his mistake. Jost said:
"It was extremely hard, I think that’s hard for absolutely everybody and I think everybody who didn’t go through this has no idea how that feels."
Jost also commented on Latifi going off social media and explained his reasons for doing so:
"We said that there is was nothing wrong, everything was fine but it’s very difficult to up them because that was the end of the season, they all went on vacation, they said they have to take the time off. So he was not around here every single day and it’s also we didn’t interfere there too much as we knew what was happening, we knew was going on that he switched his social media off but if we would have interfered too much, I think we would have made the situation even worse."
He added:
"So even if you switch then your social media off, you are in contact with other people who still see it and it’s going on, and you just can’t get away."
Jost explained that this was why Latifi had such a bad start to his season. Nicholas Latifi has scored no points in the championship so far, with only six races remaining in the season.
Nicholas Latifi has the full support of the Williams team even after a rough season
Jost also said that the Williams team fully supported Nicholas Latifi and were confident he would return to his old form later in the season. Jost said:
"I think that was also a part why it took him quite a while in the season to find his competitiveness. I’m sure it affected his driving after that. And it would have affected my driving a lot, I am absolutely convinced about this. So I can understand that and this is why we gave him the confidence and supported him all the season and we knew he would come back."
Nicholas Latifi needs to put on some good performances at the next six races. Otherwise, there is a high chance he could be replaced at Williams next season.
