Grove (AP) – Formula 1 driver Nicholas Latifi said he was insulted on social media after the season finale a week and a half ago in Abu Dhabi and even received death threats.
The Williams driver had gone off the track shortly before the end of the last race of the year. The Canadian had thus triggered the safety car phase through which Red Bull driver Max Verstappen was able to overtake his Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton on the last lap and secure the world title for the first time. Then a dispute broke out between the Red Bull and Mercedes teams.
“What shocked me was the extreme tone of hatred, verbal abuse and even death threats I received,” wrote Latifi on his website. “When I think about what happened during the race, there was really only one group of people to whom I had to apologize for the DNF: my team.” He did that right after the race. “Everything else that came after that was out of my hands.”
He worries “how someone else might react if he or she were insulted in this way. Nobody should let the activities of a vocal minority dictate who they are,” said the 26-year-old. The events had shown him the importance of “working together to prevent such things and to support those who are affected by them”. It is right to “denounce this kind of behavior and not to be silent”.
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