Ok, he may not actually be a GOAT (greatest of all time), but Nicholas Latifi's F1 career will be one fans remember for a long time and not necessarily all for the right reasons.
After what seems like months of speculation, it was recently confirmed that Williams race driver; Nicholas Latifi, would be leaving the team at the end of the 2022 season. Have Williams made the correct choice? Will Latifi get a chance with another team? Who will replace him? There's currently so many questions in regards to a driver who has achieved so little in Formula One and motorsport as a whole.
Latifi was first introduced into the world of Formula One in 2016 after signing as a test driver with the then Renault F1 Team, now known as Alpine. By 2018 he had transferred to Force India (now Aston Martin) to take on their role as test and reserve driver before joining the Williams family in a similar role in 2019, the same year he finished runner up to Nyck de Vries in Formula Two. Latifi would then go on to make his Formula One race debut in 2020. A relatively turbulent F1 career, Latifi has, as of September 2022, only scored 7 career points with all 7 being scored in 2021. Of course, the number of points a driver has isn't a true representation of what they are capable of, but unfortunatley for Latifi, being apart of a "back marker" team with team mates who constantly out-qualify and out-race him, it's not a very good look.
(The following may include my own views and opinions.)
As a driver with money and a 2nd place finish in Formula 2, it's understandable why Latifi, or Goatifi as he's become to be known in the world of social media, would have been an attractive option for Williams. But after many crashes, incidents and "slow" driving, like many before him, his F1 career just hasn't worked out. After being out-qualified and out-raced by Nyck de Vries, a driver making his F1 debut with Williams in Monza 2022, Williams had, in my opinion, no choice but to end ties with Latifi for 2023. F1 is a cut-throat world and Latifi's chances ran out. I hate to say it so bluntly but he's just not good enough for the pinnacle of motorsport. However, Latifi's F1 career won't be forgotten in a hurry thanks to his late race crash at the controversial 2021 Abu Dhabi GP.
Moving on, Latifi's chances at racing in Formula One again are probably, I would think, very slim. As mentioned before, he is a driver with money, so I expect we haven't seen the last of the Canadian in the sport. Maybe he'll go back to being a reserve/test driver or maybe he'll search for success elsewhere. Who knows?
Then there is the speculation of who could replace Latifi at Williams. Current team mate; Alex Albon; has already been confirmed for 2023, so who will join him?
There's plenty of drivers on the market for 2023. The likes of Daniel Ricciardo and Mick Schumacher are looking at their options and then, despite his connection with many other teams, there's Nyck de Vries. Williams also have their driver academy with the likes of Logan Sargeant and Jamie Chadwick driving under the team's name. It's fair to say that Williams have a pretty difficult decision on their hands. I'm not envious.
But back to Latifi, it's such a shame seeing a driver's hopes and dreams come crashing down like this but sometimes it just doesn't work out. It's happened to many a driver before and it will happen to many a driver after. This is Formula One, after all.
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