What happened to Nicholas Latifi? The new path taken after F1 career
Nicholas Latifi, Williams, smiling with his hand on top of his head. Hungary, July 2022.
Whether you know him as Nicholas Latifi, or perhaps by his tongue-in-cheek nickname GOATifi, it’s clear that the former Canadian Formula 1 driver has dropped off the map since he was dropped at the end of the 2022 season in favor of American Logan Sargeant.
Today, we’re going to find out just what happened to Nicholas Latifi, and how he’s spent his time since leaving Formula 1.
What is Nicholas Latifi doing now?
After three years in Formula 1, Canadian racer Nicholas Latifi has since stepped back from motorsport altogether, instead opting to follow in the footsteps of his father Michael Latifi, a billionaire businessman and one of the richest men in Canada.
In July of 2023, Latifi announced that he intended to put his motorsport career on hold in order to study for an MBA at the London Business School.
The process for entering the prestigious program meant Latifi spent five months hoping to gain entry, but when he did, he admitted it was time to shelve his Formula 1 experiment.
While Latifi didn’t rule out a future career in other racing disciplines, he did admit that Formula 1 would no longer be on his radar.
The MBA program at London Business School is a one- to two-year program, which means we can assume that Latifi has either completed his degree or will be doing so in the near future. However, Latifi has not posted on social media since his July 2023 MBA announcement, making it a bit difficult to ascertain exactly what he’s been up to.
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Nicholas Latifi’s Formula 1 career highlights
Beginning his karting career at 13 and earning his Formula 1 seat at Williams at age 24, Nicholas Latifi has joked that he was “definitely on the older side” when he got started in racing.
As early as 2016, Latifi had had opportunities to test Formula 1 cars, first with Renault and then with Force India before he joined the Williams Driver Academy in 2019. With Williams facing bankruptcy heading into the 2020 season, Latifi was an easy choice to join the senior team; at the time, it was estimated that he’d be bringing €30 million (or, $40 million) to the cash-strapped team courtesy of his father’s businesses.
When the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the season and title sponsor ROKiT departing, Williams was still in shaky waters. The Latifi family funneled even more money into the team and helped Williams work with HSBC to refinance its debts.
It wasn’t easy going for Latifi. He failed to score a single point in his rookie season, finishing 21st in a 20-driver championship. Teammate George Russell finished 18th.
It was a similar story in 2021, though Latifi did manage to score a total of seven points — good enough for 17th in the championship. His best finish of his career came that year, when he finished seventh at the Hungarian Grand Prix; it was still perhaps something of a denouement because the following weekend, teammate Russell managed to finish second in a rain-shortened Belgian fiasco.
Latifi’s final year in F1, 2022, saw him score two points with a ninth-place finish in Japan. After that, he was replaced by American racer Logan Sargeant.
Graciously, Latifi admitted that F1 is “a results-based industry [and] obviously the performance hasn’t been therer this year for many different reasons… I have accepted it and just have to move on.”
Still, Latifi’s brief career was dotted with truly memorable moments.
In FP3 ahead of the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix, Latifi took advantage of wet conditions to set a monster lap that saw him end the session at the top of the charts in FP1. In that moment, he truly lived up to the tongue-in-cheek GOATifi nickname he’d been endowed by race fans across the globe.
Still, Latifi’s most memorable — albeit for less joyful reasons — in F1 came at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton were tied heading into the season finale in 2021, and both drivers were desperate for a title — the first for Verstappen, or a record-breaking eighth for Hamilton.
But on Lap 53 of 58, Nicholas Latifi lost control of his Williams battling Haas’ Mick Schumacher and crashed at Turn 14. The incident resulted in a safety car — one that was expected to last until the checkered flag, as there was thought to be no time for a reorganization of the field and a restart.
Perplexingly, race director Michael Masi ordered that only the five lapped cars separating leader Hamilton from second-placed Max Verstappen (the latter of whom had stopped for fresh tires) unlap themselves: There would be one final, mad-dash lap of green-flag racing to decide this championship — and it earned Max Verstappen a controversial first World Drivers’ Championship.
While most of the criticism landed on Masi’s shoulders, Latifi was simply unable to break free from the accusation that his crash had resulted in one of the most controversial finishes in all of Formula 1 history. His career would never recover.
How does Nicholas Latifi compare to other Canadian F1 drivers?
Throughout all of Formula 1 history, only 15 drivers from Canada have entered a Formula 1 race, with nine making three starts or fewer. That means that, alongside Latifi, five other Canadians have made a had a decent go at F1: Allen Berg, George Eaton, Lance Stroll, Gilles Villeneuve, and Jacques Villeneve.
By far the most successful of those drivers is Jacques Villeneuve, as he’s the only one two have secured a Formula 1 World Championship. Following in a close second is Jacques’ father, Gilles Villeneuve, with six wins to his name.
Lance Stroll could be considered the third-best Canadian driver by virtue of his 292 points scored in a career that has lasted since 2017.
The other two Canadians with multiple starts — Berg and Eaton — never contested a full season or scored any points.
As a result, Nicholas Latifi could be considered the fourth-best Canadian Formula 1 driver of all time.
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