If you've been a fan of F1 for 10 years or a fan for 2 months, you must be wondering what's going on with Latifi's performance this year.
Latifi followed the same past as most, and came into F1 in 2019 with Williams. If you take a look at the Williams car, you'll definitely notice the bold name 'Sofina'. This sponsor is in fact a company owned by Michael Latifi, Nicholas' dad. I know I'm not the only one who immediately thinks "pay driver"...
Since he joined he was paired with George Russell, who has now moved to Mercedes. Russell out performed Latifi by a long way. He did however, gain some momentum towards the end of the season and that bode well for the 2022 season.
Although there were new regulations, Latifi is accustomed to the team and how it operates and therefore we assumed he should take a slight advantage over new teammate Alex Albon. Even though we have only had 5 races, we have been proved wrong as Alex has also out performed him, finishing in the points twice now. Latifi crashed in both qualifying and the race in Jeddah, and then an incident during qualifying in Australia. This has all happened in 5 race weekends, and the cost cap must not be forgotten. Not only are the crashes piling, Albon is out qualifying him but sometimes as much as 2 seconds.
With drivers like Oscar Piastri (2021 F2 champion) itching for a seat, Latifi best be on his A game for the remaining season and regather himself considering he currently stands 21st in a 20 driver championship.