“Lewis did send me a message a few days after”– Nicholas Latifi reveals Lewis Hamilton gave him support amidst online death threats for causing safety car during Abu Dhabi GP

Nicholas Latifi reveals Lewis Hamilton reached out to him to offer support after the former received online death threats.

The end of the 2021 season didn’t go well for Nicholas Latifi. His car crashing into the wall caused a safety car to come out, eventually altering the result.

Several fans displeased with the outcomes of the ultimate race of the 2021 season attacked Latifi for the crash. The Canadian race driver revealed every kind of abuse he tolerated, which even included some death threats.

Now, almost two months after that race, Latifi has moved on from that phase. However, he talked about how Lewis Hamilton and his team Mercedes supported him at that hour.

“I felt spreading this message was important; something I wanted to take a stand for,” Latifi told media. “In terms of the other support I got afterwards, Lewis did send me a message a few days after… just before I released the statement.”

“Obviously, I won’t go into details [about what was said]. I did get some messages of support from other team members at Mercedes as well,” Latifi added.

“The whole outcry of support on social media from multiple drivers and teams, across so many different disciplines, was really nice and encouraging to see.”

“Everyone agreed with the whole sentiment and messaging, and this has not been the only instance of a situation like this with online abuse.”

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Nicholas Latifi wants people to be better on social media

Latifi thinks social media is a blessing to society. The medium can do wonders that two decades ago felt unimaginable. But the same medium has its own dark side, and Latifi hopes people make it better.

Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi shared their thoughts on the upcoming season for Williams on the launch day of their 2022 car 🤩pic.twitter.com/N6CrbAOVBF

— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) February 15, 2022

“Social media brings a lot of good, it gives people a lot of access to things that they wouldn’t normally be able to engage with, but at the same time, unfortunately, these negative pitfalls can happen. It would just be nice to hopefully find more ways to do better on that front.”

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About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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