Nicholas Latifi says the online abuse he received after the Abu Dhabi grand prix prompted him to hire security staff as a precaution – and wants to work against it happening to others.
The Williams driver revealed in December he received extreme online abuse including death threats in the days following the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. He was targeted after his crash which caused a Safety Car period late in the race which proved a deciding factor in the title fight between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.
During the abuse, Latifi said he did feel legitimately threatened. “It sounds silly to some people,” he said “but at the end of the day, you don’t know how serious people are. All it could take is one drunk fan at an airport or you bump into someone who was having a bad day and they’re intoxicated, under the influence of something and [have] these really extreme opinions and all it takes is that one-in-a-million person.”
He admitted that the threats had been worrying enough…