[custom_adv] Thirteen is an advanced age to begin your karting career these days. But that’s how old Toronto native Nicholas Latifi was when he took his first steps in motorsport. Just 11 years later, he became a fully-fledged Formula 1 driver. [custom_adv] That ascension into racing's top category was largely thanks to his most impressive season to date in Formula 2 in 2019, with Latifi – who’d finished a disappointing ninth in the series’ 2018 standings – pulling up his bootstraps to claim second in the championship. = [custom_adv] That result, combined with the Williams/Robert Kubica union failing to mesh in 2019, meant Williams made the call to promote their affable Canadian reserve driver to a full-time drive alongside George Russell for 2020. [custom_adv] Latifi’s first taste of F1 machinery actually came all the way back in 2017, when he was given a test by Renault. Further duties with Force India followed in 2018 before he joined the Williams family in 2019. It was an annus horribilis for the squad, no doubt – but Latifi’s straightforward, friendly attitude and insightful feedback helped swing the vote in his favour for 2020. [custom_adv] Latifi would ultimately lose out to the ultra-consistent Nyck de Vries over the course of the season, but he had shown more than enough to pique the interest of Williams. A testing role with the F1 team was upgraded to a permanent race seat for 2020 with the departure of Robert Kubica. He backed this up by becoming F2’s Vice-Champion in the season finale at Abu Dhabi. [custom_adv] The Canadian has an air of confidence about him, and a sense of calm that can remain undeterred even in the most difficult of circumstances. Spending the entirety of his F2 career with DAMS, he slowly built up a solid reputation as a title challenger and ahead of the 2018 season, he looked ready.
