Nicholas Latifi will continue racing in the FIA Formula 2 Championship in 2019 season with DAMS alongside his Williams F1 role.
DAMS announced the retention of Latifi for the Canadian’s fourth full year in F2 after a year in the GP2 Series. The 23-year-old will dovetail his Williams reserve programme while also racing in F2 in his quest to win the title.
“My aims for this year are quite clear, I want to compete for the drivers’ title and help DAMS win the Teams’ Championship,” said Latifi. “The potential has been there for us to fight at the front, but we had some bad luck early on in 2018.
“My best performances came in the last few rounds, so hopefully we can continue that strong form into 2019. Driving for DAMS has given me the opportunity to showcase my abilities, which has helped in securing my F1 role with Williams, and I’m excited to be returning for another season.”
Team boss Jean-Paul Driot added: “It is very satisfying to welcome back Nicholas for another year. He recovered from illness at the start of last season and his performances in the second half showed he was capable of fighting for the title.
“As we have done in the past, our objective is to fight for both titles. He already has one foot in F1 and we will do everything to help Nicholas into a full-time drive, as we did with Albon.”
Latifi made his GP2 debut in 2014 with Hilmer Motorsport where he raced in few selected rounds as he did in 2015 with MP Motorsport as well, before his first full season in 2016 with DAMS. He continued with the French outfit in F2 in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
He has finished 16th, fifth and ninth in the three full seasons thus far in the standings with two wins and 11 podiums to his name. The Canadian will have a busy 2019 when he also undertakes simulator run with Williams and gets track time in FP1 sessions and test days.
2019 F2 line-up so far:
ART Grand Prix – Nyck de Vries & Nikita Mazepin
Prema – Mick Schumacher & Sean Gelael
Carlin – Nobuharu Matsushita
UNI-Virtuosi – Guanyu Zhou & Luca Ghiotto
Trident – Giuliano Alesi
DAMS – Nicholas Latifi
