Nicholas Latifi opens up on the extent of online abuse he received after the Abu Dhabi GP and the measures he took, as Jost Capito adds on support from Williams.
While Lewis Hamilton took him off from social media for nearly two months, Williams’ Latifi was off for about a month before his comeback with a statement. The Canadian spoke about the online abuse for the championship defining moment in Abu Dhabi.
The crash of Latifi when fighting Mick Schumacher led to a late safety car period which eventually resulted in a controversial decision and Max Verstappen winning the title from Hamilton. Amid a volatile situation, the joke from Christian Horner added more fuel.
Post-race, Horner joked about awarding Latifi free Red Bull for life. This only created more trouble for the Canadian who was equally bashed along with FIA Race Director Michael Masi. While the F1 driver has shared his side of things, the Australian is quiet till now.
Despite the statements, both Latifi and Masi continue to be harassed by one section. Speaking during the launch of Williams FW44, the Canadian explained the need to switch off as he revealed about the messages of support from Hamilton and also Mercedes.
Adding more, he felt the online abuse was expected as it is not new to him or any sportsperson but the death threats was over the line. He admitted it to be a bit funny, but he did get some security especially when came to London with his girlfriend.
This episode has led him to give more thought into online abuse and the resultant mental abuse. Latifi already partnered with Canadian helpline dealing with this and has future projects which he will announce later in the season.
Abuse aftermath Abu Dhabi, support –
Latifi: “Obviously immediately after the days, as I wrote, I did take social media off of my phone. All the abuse that came, I had expected as I said. When I did switch my phone back on with those apps, it was clear all the things that were coming in. As I said in the statement, it was a whole range of the general trolling that you get online – which, again, I’m no stranger to. I don’t think any sportsman is a stranger to having more hateful, abusive comments. And then yes, there were the more extreme death threats, which again, obviously goes way, way over the line. I think that the statement was quite important to make, because as I mentioned, at the beginning of it, I was kind of debating what was the best way to go about addressing the whole situation or just kind of ignoring it and returning to social media at some point, like normal.
“But I felt it was an important opportunity to use my platform to spread an important message, because, like I said, for me it was not the nicest feeling the first days, and I feel I got over it after maybe two days. But then there’s people that, unfortunately, maybe don’t deal with it so well, for whatever reason, it can have extremely serious consequences. So this is why I felt it was important to kind of spread this message of being kind. The people who write these messages they’re probably not going to change. I mean, that’s the fact that certain people feel the need to do so. That’s a whole separate issue, really, but I felt spreading this message was important, something I want to take a stand for. In terms of the support I got from it afterwards, Lewis did send me a message just a few days before I released the statement.
“Obviously I won’t go into details of what he said. I did get some messages of support from other team members at Mercedes as well. Obviously the whole outcry of support on social media from multiple drivers, teams across so many different disciplines was really nice to see, encouraging to see. Obviously everyone agreed with the whole sentiment and messaging. This has not been the only instance of a situation like this with online abuse.
“Obviously even going outside of motorsport, I think probably the next most recent one was probably Euro 2020 with the three British players missing the penalties and all the fallout they got after that. It’s just an issue that’s here, unfortunately, in the world we have with social media. Social media brings a lot of good, it gives people a lot of access to things that they wouldn’t normally be able to engage with. But, at the same time, unfortunately there are these negative pitfalls that can happen. It would just be nice to hopefully find more ways to do better on that front.”
Security threat –
Latifi: “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.
“So, some days I was back in London after the race, and I did have some security with me when I was doing certain things. I went to Winter Wonderland with my girlfriend – because we didn’t manage to fit that in before the last block of races – and I had some security detail with me on that. So yeah, it sounds funny, it sounds silly, but we definitely did take the threats seriously because you really don’t know what could happen. It’s just an unfortunate part of the world we live in.”
Mental health talk and work going forward –
Latifi: “I mean, again, I think this is an issue, again, even outside of drivers in any sport, that’s always going be there. Not just even in sports, things like entertainment arts industry. I definitely think there is a lot people can do on that front. I mean, me personally, since being back from my holidays, I’ve been looking at ways myself to try…first doing a bit more research. I mean, not so specific on the mental health aspect. Obviously mental health is the broader kind of overriding theme, but specifically along the themes of what I said, with the kind of cyber bullying, hate online abuse, which I guess is one of the more new generation, let’s say, common contributors to potential mental health issues for especially for younger people, for teens and what not.
“I’ve been looking at ways to try and get involved looking at different organisations and what not. There will be some things throughout the year that I will be doing, obviously nothing to say or announced yet. But I think it is a very serious topic. I mean, especially now, more than ever, because maybe many previous years, it was a topic that maybe a lot of people didn’t want to speak about, but it is one of the most important things in modern times. I think it is important to be open to talk about these certain things, obviously, I know, Lando was one of the outspoken drivers about it. I think everyone whether it’s a driver, teams, organisations as a whole, it’s something that can definitely, maybe we pushed a bit more.”
Team support from Williams –
Capito: “I think you’re right, that what happened to him is completely unacceptable. And it’s difficult to give more than mental support, isn’t it? So we supported him in the way that is convinced he didn’t do anything wrong, that the team doesn’t blame him on any mistake on any failures or anything. He was racing. And in racing, something can happen. If you fight for position, this can happen. And we wanted him to fight. And so there was nothing wrong with this. So we gave him this confidence.
“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 when he came back, and I think that was very helpful, not just for him. It was helpful for everybody in the sport or even beyond this board. And it made him stronger. And I think it shows his personality, his values. And they are fully aligned with with Williams. We’re working with him together on this, and we fully support him.”
Here’s first shots of Williams on track
Here’s the Williams launch
Here’s Nicholas Latifi supporting Bell campaign
Here’s Nicholas Latifi on social media hate
