Nicholas Latifi attained unexpected notoriety – and with it, appalling and unwarranted vilification – for his role in triggering the controversial Safety Car period which decided the 2021 world championship.
Nicholas LatifiBeat team mate in qualifying2/22Beat team mate in race3/17Races finished19/22Laps spent ahead of team mate186/1094Qualifying margin+0.34sPoints7
That came about when Latifi spun into a wall on his 51st lap while pursuing Mick Schumacher. The Haas driver had found his way past the quicker Williams, and not for the first time in 2021.
Schumacher got the better of him earlier in the year as well. Latifi fell behind him at the third round in Portugal, and was out-qualified by the Haas in Spain. For a second-year driver, being occasionally shown the way by a rookie in a less competitive machine was far from ideal.
Latifi’s stumbling start to the season also included an early retirement at Imola where he went off on the first lap and tangled with the other Haas of…