"He has to get his head around it" – Williams’ boss says Nicholas Latifi has 'full support of the team'

Williams’ Nicholas Latifi has had a tough few races in 2022, struggling to extract competitive pace from his FW44, while making numerous costly mistakes. Yet, team boss Jost Capito says the Canadian has the team’s full support behind him.

Capito believes Latifi just needs a “clear head” before he can return to performing at the level he was at the end of last season. Speaking to planetF1 following the Imola GP, Capito said:

“I think it’s a heads game, isn’t it? He’s capable to drive very fast and do the same lap times as Alex [Albon] if he is in the right place, I’m sure.

“The cars are a bit more difficult and trickier to drive than last year’s car and he has to get his head around it and he gets the full support from the team.”

Latifi has struggled to get to terms with the new generation F1 cars, which are more mechanical and have less downforce at slow speed corners. The Canadian seems unable to adapt his driving style to suit the new car, resulting him being seconds off the pace from his teammate.

Furthermore, his numerous high-profile crashes, especially in Jedda and Australia have blown a hole in the team’s budget, potentially hampering their ability to direct resources elsewhere.

Nevertheless, Capito is confident his driver will eventually get on his teammate’s pace. He said:

“If you have a couple of offs that makes…you have to fight again the confidence then, but he will get the full support of the team and we are sure he will get there.”

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Social media abuse heavily impacted Nicholas Latifi: Capito

Nicholas Latifi has managed to crash at least a half-dozen times within the first four rounds of the 2022 season, accruing a great deal of damage to his cars. This led to him getting abused on social media, with users comparing him to former Haas driver Nikita Mazepin.

While Jost Capito believes Latifi’s mistakes will undoubtedly have some impact on his confidence, he doesn’t believe they are fundamentally affecting his mindset.

Rather, he believes the Canadian was most impacted by the abuse he endured at the end of last season following his perceived involvement in the Abu Dhabi controversy. Speaking to planetF1, he said:

“I think what impacted him most last year was the comments and the threats on social media where we helped him to get over that.

“And think, of course, if he had these incidents for a couple of times that as mentioned before, it’s not just boosting his confidence, but we try to boost his confidence, we work with him, and I think he’s getting better on that. He has to learn that, and I think he’s on a good way.”

Nicholas Latifi currently sits at the bottom of the driver’s standings with zero points and has failed to finish higher than P16 in any race in 2022.