Former world champion Damon Hill was highly critical of Nicholas Latifi, whose performance in Italy showed, in his opinion, that he had no place in the field of Formula One.
The Canadian rider got a new teammate on Saturday morning after Alexander Albon was forced to withdraw from the weekend with appendicitis: The Thai has been replaced by team reserve, Nick de Vries. He only had one free practice before qualifying, but he ran a better lap than Nice.
The next day, he also overshadowed his more routine racing partner: De Vries had the team’s best result of the year and finished in ninth, which meant he was able to score points on his first start for Williams 2022. For Latifi, that still hasn’t worked out yet. .
However, he was given the opportunity this time as well, as he also started from the top ten due to engine change penalties, but in the end he only finished 15th (i.e. last). While the Dutchman was in the spotlight with his good result, Latifi received more criticism after losing to his new teammate. For example, from Damon Hill.
According to the 1996 world champion, Latifi does not deserve to keep his place with the team for 2023. “I’m sorry, but she” He told Sky Sports. “In this case, Nicholas doesn’t have the speed to maintain his position in Formula 1. He’s had some good moments, but here comes the guy who’s never driven in a Grand Prix before and is doing a great job.”
As for de Vries, Hill is confident the Dutchman could be part of the field next year (in addition to Williams, Albin is said to be interested in him as well). Regarding his performance, he noted that the fact that the whole of F1 is talking about him is definitely a good start for him.
“I know there were retroactive penalties, which helped him on the grid, but he still did very well in qualifying. And he made no mistake. He did enough to get us talking about him, even Toto (Wolf – Mercedes team principal) talked about it. That’s what you need if You want to be a good competitor.” He finished his thought.
Nicholas Latifi (Photo: XPB)
