Nicholas Latifi has opened up on why he decided to keep social media platforms at a bay with him receiving death threats after his crash at the F1 Abu Dhabi GP
In the aftermath of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021, Nicholas Latifi emerged as a massively hated figure. The Williams driver ended up crashing his car in the 53rd lap of the race, one which saw mayhem erupt with Michael Masi making the most of the crash to peddle out his bemusing decision making.
Nicholas Latifi Talks About Death Threats After The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021
As the safety car was brought on to clear up the mess from Latifi’s crash, Masi went onto talk about how overtaking wouldn’t be allowed once the race resumed. However, that decision over overhauled in a matter of just four minutes with him allowing only six lapped cars to overtake.
It saw Max Verstappen on new soft tyres ease past Lewis Hamilton to win his maiden drivers’ championship title. The set of events which unraveled left a sour taste in everyone’s mouth with Latifi on the end of colossal hate from Hamilton’s fans.
He has now gone onto detail his crash and what ensured afterwards. The 26 year old went onto talk about how he had been subjected to some of the most awful vitriol on social media platforms with him even receiving death threats which had seen him decide to stave away from these platforms.
“This isn’t some scripted statement, but rather me speaking my mind in the hope that this maybe sparks another conversation about online bullying and the drastic consequences it can have on people.
“Using social media as a channel to attack somebody with messages of hate, abuse and threats of violence is shocking – and something I am calling out.
“But as we’ve seen time and time again, across all different sports, it only takes one incident at the wrong time to have things completely blown out of proportion and bring out the worst in people who are so-called ‘fans’ of the sport.
“What shocked me was the extreme tone of the hate, abuse, and even the death threats I received,” the Williams