Latifi hired security following death threats
Nicholas Latifi has revealed he employed security protection staff following the death threats he received in the aftermath of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The Canadian inadvertently caused the safety car when he crashed with six laps to go.
That allowed the field to close up and Max Verstappen to pass Lewis Hamilton on the final lap, after race director Michael Masi failed to follow the correct procedure after only allowing only the cars between the title contenders to unlap themselves.
Speaking after driving Williams’ 2022 F1 challenger in shakedown at Silverstone on Tuesday, Latifi explained that his statement was “an important opportunity to use my platform to spread the important message” of “being kind”.
Asked how seriously he and his team had taken the death threats and if he had taken measures to protect himself with security staff, he replied: “Yeah, to be honest, it was something we considered. It sounds silly to some people, but again 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 that’s having a bad day, intoxicated or under the influence of something, and has these really extreme opinions. All it takes is that one in a million person.”
He said when he returned to the UK after the race, he did have some security with me when I was doing certain things. When he was doing Christmas things with his girlfriend he had security with him.
Latifi also revealed that Hamilton “did send me a message a few days after [Abu Dhabi]”. Although he did not go into details of their exchange, he indicated that it sat alongside the “messages of support [I received] from other team members at Mercedes as well”.
He compared the experience to the three English players, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, who received online racist abuse after missing penalties in last years Euro 2020 final. Saying “It’s an issue, unfortunately, we have in the world we have with social media. Social media brings a lot of good, gives people a lot of access to things that they wouldn’t normally be able to engage with.”
We will bring you analysis and reaction over the coming days, as soon as the report is published
F1 needs to do more to tackle trolls – Norris
Lando Norris hopes the sport can do more to address the growing problem of social media trolls. Admit the controversies last season between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, and their respective teams, fans were often at loggerheads with the sport itself also targeted on social media.
Norris said that he has learned that the best way of dealing with trolls is to laugh at them, but he thinks the dark side of social media is something that needs addressing.
He told Autosport, “I think it’s something I’ve learned in my first three seasons in F1, that there seem to be those people out there who, that is the only thing they want to do with their life, and they have nothing better than to attack people. I just hate to see it. Does it affect me? In a small way, but nothing more than that hopefully.”
He says personally he takes it as a laugh and a joke, rather than personally as there is nothing you can do about it, then you can’t get the blame for it. Norris hopes it can get better with the team putting effort into improving these things, to get rid of these kinds of people.
Latifi revealed on Tuesday that he opted to beef up his private security in the wake of the threats he received after the Abu Dhabi GP. The Canadian’s team principal Jost Capito said that nobody should have had to endure what the youngster faced.
He said, “What happened to him is completely unacceptable and it’s difficult to give more than mental support, isn’t it? We supported him in the way that he is convinced he didn’t do anything wrong, and that the team doesn’t blame him on any mistake, on any failures or anything.”
“He was racing and in racing, some things can happen. If you fight for position, this can happen. He took himself out of social media, and we didn’t push him on social media to give him a break from this. You have seen the text he came up with then when he came back.”
Williams admit a long way to go before return to front
Williams says they still have a long way to go before they can return to the top of the sport. The multiple champions finished eighth last season, the first time for three years the team has not been last.
New rules have been introduced in F1 this year to make the field more competitive. Team principal Jost Capito told BBC News, “To get the team back to where we want to be, from where it was, is a long way. It’s not something we can fix in one year.”
Capito has been tasked by the team’s owners with making the team challenge for wins and titles in the medium to long term. But he admitted the team still lack resources compared with the top teams, and that it would take time for the effect of the new rules and budget cap to make a difference.
Capito said, “Compared to the top teams, we still were lacking,” “We didn’t have investment before the last year, and over the last year investment was limited by the cost cap.” Progress for the team this year is measured by how much they improve between the start and end of the season.
Williams has a new driver this year in Anglo-Thai Alexander Albon, a replacement for George Russell, who has moved to Mercedes. Albon will partner Nicholas Latifi, as he returns to the sport after a year out as Red Bull’s reserve driver, the team believe that he grew a lot last year and has not reached his peak yet and still can be much better.
He also says the British-Thai drivers values fit with that of the team, and they can talk openly which Capito believes will allow him to deliver on track. Albon is as highly rated as Russell, Charles Leclerc, having come through the junior categories with them since he was a boy.
Visibility could be more restricted with 2022 cars
Williams drivers Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi say that visibility could be more restricted because of the bigger tyres. The duo became the first drivers to drive a 2022 car, when they completed a shakedown test in the wet yesterday at Silverstone, after launching the car earlier on Wednesday.
although the rules restricted their running to 100 kilometres in total, and the day was hit by rain, both drivers admit concerns that visibility with the new 18-inch wheels and tyre deflectors could be more limited have been realised.
Latifi said: “The visibility, it definitely is worse in some corners. I guess it just depends on the kind of corner, how much you are steering into the corner and where your gaze is going. I think that’ll just be something that everyone has to get used to. But there are definitely instances where you do see less for sure.”
Albon explained he believes that would be more of an issue at street circuits, but not at places like Silverstone, he described the conditions as dark, gloomy, wet day.
Saying “I think we’re going to struggle more when we go to street tracks. When we come towards Monaco, Baku Jeddah, that’s going to be the tricky ones. On open tracks, you can see far ahead of you. With the blind spots of the tyre and all the deflectors, it takes away a lot of that immediate view as you’re looking into the corner.”
He says that visibility will be more difficult at street circuits, where you can’t see as well around corners.
While the shakedown and conditions did not allow either Williams driver to understand much about the new 2022 F1 machinery, Latifi did suggest he already could feel how much heavier the new cars were.
Red Bull announces crypto sponsorship
Red Bull has signed a three-year sponsorship deal worth a £110.3m over three years with Singapore-based cryptocurrency platform Bybit. Although full details have not been released the deal is believed to be the biggest sponsorship in any international sports market.
Last week the team announced that the tech giant Oracle would become the team’s title sponsor, as they seek to plug the hole following the withdrawal at the end of last year of Honda. They are also looking to finance their own Powertrains division and the deal as principal team partner makes another significant contribution.
The plan is for Bybit to help the team to grow fan engagement in its role as fan token issuance partner. Founded in 2018, the platform allows traders the right to buy or sell crypto assets at a certain price at a future date. In November the company became the main sponsor of Argentina’s national football team.
Regarding the deal Christian Horner said: “They share the team’s passion to exist at the forefront of technological innovation, to set the competitive pace and to disrupt the status quo. Allied to that is Bybit’s commitment to enlivening the fan experience in F1 through digital innovation.
“This is also a key mission for the team and Bybit’s assistance will help us build a deeper more immersive and unique connection with the team for fans around the world.”
Cryptocurrency is becoming part of the sport as a marketing tool, several teams already have relationships with various companies. The highest profile is Crypto.com, an official partner of the sport and sponsor of the Miami Grand Prix, as well as Aston Martin.
Alpine recently announced the launch of a fan token via Binance, while Red Bull’s sister team AlphaTauri has extended the arrangement with Fantom that it first announced in May 2021.
Mercedes signed a deal with FTX last September, while for 2022 McLaren has a new partnership with Turkish firm Bitci.com, and Ferrari has aligned with Swiss-based Velas Network.
Russell switches helmet colour to black
George Russell has announced he is switching his main helmet colour ahead of his first season with Mercedes out of respect to Michael Schumacher. Russell up until this point in his career has used a largely red helmet, following his step up to Mercedes he will change to a largely black helmet.
Schumacher raced for Mercedes in his F1 comeback between 2010 and 2012, making the sight of a bright red helmet against the team’s silver livery iconic. Russell explained that it was “quite different in colours compared to what I’ve had previously, and I’ve gone for quite a bold black this season”.
He said, “A red helmet in a Mercedes I thought was very Michael Schumacher, and I really wanted to respect that and go in a different direction. I’ve brought forward the black, I’ve got the red on the side with the Crowdstrike [sponsor], and bringing forward this blue detailing, which I really, really love and it’s probably something you’ll see a bit more of this year.”
Mercedes will unveil their 2022 car on Friday at Silverstone.
Drive To Survive season four release date
Netflix has announced season four of the critically-acclaimed Drive to Survive docu-series will be released on Friday 11th March, a week before the Bahrain Grand Prix. The ten-part series has helped lift the profile and drive audiences across the world, enjoying particular success in the United States.
The series will once again be produced by Box to Box Films, with Academy Award-winner James Gay-Rees (Amy, Senna) and Paul Martin (Diego Maradona) as executive producers.
A statement said, “Offering unprecedented access, Season 4 will once again take fans behind the scenes, to witness first-hand how the drivers and teams prepare to battle it out for victory in one of the sport’s most dramatic seasons to date.”
“Get ready to delve into fierce team rivalries, unexpected podiums, and the intense title battle between Mercedes and Red Bull as the pressure reaches an all-time high both on and off the grid”
Season three was the most-watched show on Netflix upon its release last year, and achieved the rare feat of outperforming the first season in terms of viewership. Camera crews were embedded with teams across the course of the 2021 season once again, catching behind-the-scenes footage and covering many of the off-track stories.
However, Verstappen is not set to be directly featured in the series heavily after revealing last October that he was not giving any more interviews for Netflix as it “faked rivalries”.
