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.”
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.
“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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