Williams Formula 1 driver Nicholas Latifi has revealed that Lewis Hamilton messaged him after he received death threats and had to hire a security detail following his role in the controversial Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Latifi crashed in the 2021 season finale while chasing Mick Schumacher for 15th place, and inadvertently triggered an end of race safety car that would change the course of the race and the title.
FIA race director Michael Masi fast-tracked the end of the safety car procedure in order to set up one final lap of racing, a decision that is still been investigated by the governing body.
A week after the finale, Latifi revealed in a statement that he’d received death threats online for his role in the race.
Speaking on the day that Williams launched its 2022 challenger, Latifi revealed that seven-time champion Hamilton – the loser in the two-way Abu Dhabi title fight – sent him a message of support even before Latifi released his statement.
“There was the more extreme death threats, that goes way over a line,” Latifi said. “The statement was quite important to make.
“I was kind of debating what was the best way of addressing the situation. Ignoring it and returning to social media like normal [was an option], but I felt it was an important opportunity to use my platform to spread an important message.
“For me, it was not the nicest feeling on that first day [after he crashed in Abu Dhabi]. I got over it after two days, but then these people that unfortunately maybe don’t deal with it so well for whatever reason and it can have extremely serious consequences.
“In terms of support I got, Lewis did send me a message, a few days after, just before I realised the statement. I won’t go into details of what he said.
“I also got messages of support from other team members at Mercedes as well. The whole outcry of support on social media from multiple drivers, teams across so many different disciplines, was really nice to see and encouraging.”
Latifi, who will enter his third F1 season with Williams in 2022, also revealed he had to hire a security detail to accompany him at multiple events after the Abu Dhabi finale.
“Yeah, to be honest, it was something we considered,” Latifi said when asked if he considered hiring security in the aftermath.
“It sounds silly to some people 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 bump into someone who is having a bad day and is intoxicated under the influence of something and has these really extreme opinions.
“All it takes is that one in a million person.
“Some days I was back in London after the race, I did have some security with me when I was doing certain things.
“I went to Winter Wonderland with my girlfriend. I had some security detail with me on that.
“Sounds funny, sounds silly but we took threats seriously because you really don’t know what could happen. Unfortunately it’s part of the world we live in.”
Latifi went on to explain how he’s researched online abuse and the effect of it on young people’s mental health, as well as charities that help with it.
He confirmed that “there will be some things that I will be doing throughout the year” on the topic of online abuse and mental health, but will announce details of it in the future.
