‘We’re always talking about consistency in decisions’: Nicholas Latifi ‘frustrated’ at being unable to explain his part of Zhou collision in Singapore
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Nicholas Latifi
Nicholas Latifi will leave Formula 1 at the end of the season, even though his replacement has not been announced. The performances have been rather disappointing still the start, but it has been especially stark this year. The Canadian still has 0 points for the season, while one-time teammate Nyck de Vries has 2.
Singapore was another disappointing event for the team, and likewise, for Latifi as well. The Canadian retired early from the race, after a collision with Zhou Guanyu. Zhou retired on lap 6 itself, but Latifi went on for one more lap. His teammate, Alex Albon went on for 18 more laps but eventually had to retire as well.
Latifi was judged at fault for the collision with Zhou and handed a 5-place grid penalty for Japan. While he admitted he didn’t leave Zhou enough space: “At the end watching all the different on-boards, I think, if you’re going off the rulebook, it’s clear he came up alongside me, and I didn’t leave him enough space.” he was not happy with the stewards not considering his own side of the story.
Nicholas Latifi: ‘Zhou was in my blind spot’
As per Motorsport Week, Nicholas Latifi was unhappy with the stewards, as he was not even summoned for the incident before they handed him a penalty: “I think the things that were maybe not considered, which is as well, maybe one of the frustrations that I didn’t have a chance to go to this stewards, because they didn’t ever summon me, like normally happens when there’s an incident between two drivers.”
Latifi claimed that Zhou Guanyu had been in his ‘blind spot’: “I was taking the same line I was taking every single lap beforehand. And I did actually look into my mirrors, both ways. You see from the onboard that I glanced in both directions but the problem was, just because of the difference in lines, he was driving in the blind spot of the mirror the whole way down to the corner.”
He added: “I mean, if I would have got penalised anyways, in the end, after being able to at least give my side of the story, I know, doesn’t really make much of a difference and I would have accepted that. But I guess just not being able to go to the stewards and give my side of the events and give different points that I think weren’t considered.”
The Canadian driver called it ‘frustrating’ to not be able to explain his side of things – citing how the drivers and really everyone in the Formula 1 world is always talking about consistency in decisions and penalties. It has definitely been a point of contention in the past.
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)