A few laps from the finish, the crash of the Canadian led to the arrival of the Safety Car, indirectly allowing Max Verstappen to win.
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Eleven days after the last Formula 1 Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi, Nicholas Latifi emerged from the silence on Tuesday, December 21. The Canadian pilot of the Williams team denounced, in a long message posted on Twitter, the torrent of hatred suffered since his crash which indirectly allowed Max Verstappen to win.
A message from me after the events of Abu Dhabi https://t.co/uYj7Ct6ANQ pic.twitter.com/eThFec8nAi
– Nicholas Latifi (@NicholasLatifi) December 21, 2021
Latifi said he had received messages “Support”, but also “hate and abuse”. “Using social media to attack someone with messages of hate, abuse and threats of violence is shocking – and it is something I denounce”, he developed.
On December 12, Nicholas Latifi’s car crashed on lap 53 (out of 58) of the last Grand Prix of the season, in Abu Dhabi. His exit from the road, from which he came out unscathed, reshuffled the cards between Lewis Hamilton, who was heading for the title, and Max Verstappen. The arrival of the Safety Car allowed the Dutchman to change his tires, to better overtake his rival in the home stretch.
The fact that I thought it best to delete Instagram and Twitter from my phone for a few days speaks volumes about the cruelty of the online world.
Nicholas latifion his Twitter account
By this press release, Latifi intends “spark a new debate on online harassment and its dramatic consequences for people”. Because this phenomenon, accentuated by sports betting, is far from being an isolated case. AS Saint-Etienne defender Yvann Maçon, for example, had received many hate messages after a tackle that resulted in Neymar’s injury at the end of November.