Nicholas Latifi reckons a result like F1 Japanese GP still wouldn’t have been enough, as Alexander Albon talks of his retirement cause.
It was a fine end to F1 Japanese GP for Williams’ Latifi, who scored his first points of the 2022 season in tricky conditions after losing his teammate Albon on Lap 1. It was the Canadian’s first time at the Suzuka circuit and most of it run in mixed conditions.
The early gamble to switch to intermediates worked for Latifi as he found himself in a higher points position when others started to pit. Although, few cars passed him but he still ended up ninth where he held off the McLaren pair.
“Obviously, really happy with that,” said Latifi to TV media. “At the end, it was tough conditions. For me, it was on the safety car formation lap that it would be inters, so we made the call to get on them as soon as possible. It was crucial in getting those points in free air because the biggest thing in the pack was the spray, I mean the tyre was a wrong choice – the full wet.
“It was very difficult to manage at the end, the tyres were gone already eight laps into the stint, it was just hanging on and bringing it home, and points was a nice reward for everybody,” summed up Latifi who will be out of Williams and F1 at the end of the 2022 season. When asked if the result is too late for him, the Canadian reckoned it wouldn’t have mattered anyhow.
“It is nice to get some points for sure but in the end even with a result like this, a race like this wouldn’t have changed the decision,” said Latifi. “As I said, it was about consistency across, obviously it was a nice personal boost for sure, coming to the end of the season and with the team, obviously nice points for them but beyond that nothing more.”
For Albon, it was an early end to his grand prix as a contact with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen damaged his radiator which forced him to retire. The collision was missed on the world feed amid other things happening at the same time in hugely tricky conditions.
“It’s definitely a shame as I felt like there was a chance to maybe score some points,” said Albon. “I actually had a very good start and was really pleased with it but then with the visibility being so poor, I couldn’t see the car next to me; I couldn’t even see the track. I had a light touch with Kevin but where we hit it touched the radiator, we lost water pressure and it was leaking, so we had to stop the car.
“It was extremely dangerous out there and so bad in terms of visibility, in fact it’s the worst I’ve ever experienced in my career so far. We are driving over 200kph in that weather and, whatever you are seeing on external or onboard cameras, it’s a hundred times worse from the cockpit,” summed up Albon.
Here’s Nicholas Latifi on tractor issue