In the 2022 Formula 1 season, Nicholas Latifi has not come up with a green branch so far. The 26-year-old has been ironed out by returnee Alex Albon in all races so far. While the ex-Red Bull driver has already scored a point, Latifi is struggling with trust in the Williams FW44. The Canadian has struggled since the race in Saudi Arabia.
Williams also doesn’t seem to have any updates in the pipeline that could help Latifi rekindle confidence in the car. Instead, the racing team tends to fill up its reserves of spare parts, which are becoming increasingly empty due to global delivery difficulties and bottlenecks. So Latifi cannot hope for a breakthrough with the help of a technical innovation in the coming races either.
Latifi’s Formula 1 career picked up momentum last year when he repeatedly put pressure on George Russell. When both Williams drivers scored points in Hungary in 2021, Latifi finished seventh, just ahead of Russell. With the new cars, there is not much left of the Canadian’s former upward trend in the 2022 season: one retirement and three 16th places currently correspond to zero points in the overall standings.
Mental strain since Abu Dhabi 2021
Latifi was already criticized at the 2021 Formula 1 final, because his crash led to the safety car phase and thus to the controversial World Championship final between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. The Dutchman won the World Cup while Hamilton fans took to social media to lash out at Latifi. Perhaps this mental strain is still in the bones of the Canadian.
It would have been good for Latifi to just leave the car and start the 2022 season completely unobtrusively, but the 26-year-old crashed in Jeddah in both qualifying and the race. In qualifying in Australia he collided with Lance Stroll and found himself in the cross hairs again, although Stroll took the blame with the International Automobile Federation (FIA).
But what slows Latifi down? In 2022, Formula 1 will focus on ground-effect cars and in this development process Williams seems to have lost a little competitiveness, which does not suit the Canadian. “It’s a head game, isn’t it?” says team boss Jost Capito. “He can drive very fast and get the same lap times as Alex when things go well for him, I’m sure of that.”
New Williams more difficult to control
However, the Williams mastermind admits that the new FW44 is “more difficult” to drive than last year’s car, which is why Latifi lost confidence more quickly after his occasional rides. “He has the full support of the team,” clarifies Capito. “We’ll make sure he gets back to his form.”
According to Capito, the shitstorm Latifi endured after the 2021 World Cup final in Abu Dhabi is another factor slowing down the Canadian. The comments, insults and threats did not leave the 26-year-old without a trace. “We help him to process it,” asserted the Williams team boss. According to Capito, this and previous accidents eroded the Williams driver’s confidence.
“That’s why we’re trying to rekindle his self-confidence,” says the team boss. “We’re working with him and I think he’s getting better and better at it. He has to learn that and I think he’s on the right track.” In Imola, Latifi was right behind Albon for a long time because both had started quite far back. In the race, however, Latifi did not get past 16th place, while Albon stormed into 11th place.
Latifi didn’t dare to pit
The reason for this was the pit stop strategy, which suited Albon much better than Latifi. While the ex-Red Bull driver made up several positions, the Canadian didn’t improve over the course of the race. So, on top of the accidents and loss of confidence, there is also bad luck and bad timing, which is affected by the factors mentioned above.
“The track was probably ready for slicks,” said Latifi. “But since I don’t have confidence in the car, I didn’t want to be one of the first to pit. I was happy to let the other drivers go first to confirm I was right. That got me in the end cost a lot of time on the track. I lost with the later stop. But the pace we had today was positive.”
Latifi is open about his difficulties at Williams and has already identified areas where he would like to improve in order to be able to attack again in the future. With the car, Latifi wants to warm up over the course of the season to minimize unnecessary crashes and incidents, but that takes time.
Trust first – technique second
But why doesn’t Latifi feel comfortable in the Williams car? “It’s the whole package. If I don’t go full throttle on the straights, it starts. Alex feels much more comfortable in the car. Away from the car’s pace: We know that we lack downforce and that the balance isn’t right. But he makes one better job of handling it.”
That’s why Latifi wants to get to Albon’s level in the course of the year and deal with the FW44 in the same way as the ex-Red Bull driver and Formula 1 returnee. “I have to regain confidence in the car first, because you can’t start with the technical aspects. Confidence comes first, everything else follows afterwards,” states Latifi.
Latifi gets support from Dave Robson, who oversees the performance of the car at Williams. He says that the car would behave very differently on the brakes compared to last year. Therefore, a driver first has to get used to this “unusual” feeling.
Adjustments to the car not easy
“In recent years, the tail has come up significantly,” says Robson. “That’s why the front wing was pushed towards the ground. So the balance in the corner when braking and turning in is a little different. This car is quite flat because it’s so low and stiff. It doesn’t get high. There’s not much you can do because that’s what happens aerodynamically when the car is so low and stiff at the rear.”
So Williams had to find other ways to restore Latifi’s confidence in the car. The focus is on the vehicle settings, but also on the driver’s adaptability. “That’s the way cars are today,” explains Robson. “We could make it higher and softer, but then it wouldn’t be fast anymore.”
Latifi would like a car that is more forgiving, but he also knows he will have to adjust his approach in the 2022 season to be successful. That’s why he wants to find a set-up in the FW44 that suits his riding style better and is still fast. It’s a two-way game: the car needs to be better tuned to his needs, while at the same time he needs to adapt better to the new rules – as Albon does.
Latifi takes Albon as a role model
“But that just hasn’t worked since Saudi Arabia,” Latifi admits. “It feels like I’m not making any progress on any lap. It could be better to get the car more towards me. It’s not about the stability of the car because that’s not what we need. We tried that in Australia and it didn’t work.”
Latifi does not pass the buck to Albon, who also influences the vehicle settings. “With the standard car that we had in Bahrain, the weaknesses were clearly revealed. That’s why we have to struggle with these limits on every track – on some more, on others less. Nevertheless, these limitations exist.”
The upcoming races on the 2022 Formula 1 calendar will not make it easy for Latifi to regain his confidence. Miami, Baku, Monaco and Montreal: These are all tight tracks that don’t forgive mistakes. Only Barcelona alone offers the driver a little more space with its run-off zones, should the car not do what the driver wants at the wheel …