Stepping into carbon-fibre rocketships to do battle at over 320kph over 22 weekends makes Formula 1 drivers some of the bravest athletes on the planet.
It does not, however, require any bravery, nerve or gumption to declare Nicholas Latifi as the worst-performing driver of the 2022 F1 season.
Latifi’s adventure at motorsport’s highest level appears to have reached its conclusion at the end of his third F1 campaign. It’s not hard to see why.
He was regularly the slowest of his peers, albeit in what was usually the slowest car. He committed the most bewildering blunders. Driving into Zhou Guanyu when the Alfa Romeo driver pulled alongside him in Singapore. In a wet Monaco, he crashed on the formation lap, pitted for a new front wing, then ran off the track at Sainte Devote and fell even further behind the rest of the pack. At Suzuka he mistook a shortcut which forms its short track variant before the final chicane, earning millions of video views and ruthless mockery.
His exploits saw his status as an ironic joke character among online F1 fandom grow through the season, no matter if his competency behind the wheel was superior to many other drivers that could be recalled from the long history of F1.
In truth, Latifi was spinning his tyres from the very beginning of the season. New team mate Alex Albon rocked up after a year out and stuck his car 14th on the grid in Bahrain, while Latifi qualified 20th and last. Jeddah, just a week later, was woeful. Crashing out in Q1 was bad, but not a disaster. His unforced race-ending error the day after, however, was one of the more embarrassing moments of the season.
It became clear that Latifi just couldn’t match what Albon was doing with the car. As Albon sniped points in Melbourne, Miami and then at Spa-Francorchamps, Latifi only finished inside the top 15 once over the same span of races.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Monza was always going to be his best chance of points given the slippery nature of the Williams with its high top speed. This was his big opportunity – a chance to fight for the outside chance of a point. Instead, Albon fell ill and was replaced on the Saturday by Nyck de Vries.
Instead the last-minute F1 debutant immediately out-qualified the team’s regular driver. Not only that, De Vries held position on the opening lap while his team mate dropped four places, and finished…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at RaceFans…