Nicholas Latifi slammed the “extreme” death threats and abuse he received after the controversial Abu Dhabi GP.
Latifi’s crash on lap 51 of the race triggered a series of events that resulted in race leader Lewis Hamilton being robbed of a deserved world championship. The idiotic nature of reactionary fans targeted their fury at the Williams driver even though it was not his fault at all.
Instead of blaming the FIA, many fans abused the Canadian, something that is simply despicable. The driver remained quiet about it for a while, until he simply couldn’t.
Latifi slammed the “extreme” death threats and abuse he received after the controversial Abu Dhabi GP, and criticised everyone who sent him negative messages.
“I’ve purposely been staying away from social media to kind of let things settle down from the events of the last race,” he told his official website in a statement.
“As soon as the chequered flag dropped, I knew how things were likely to play out on social media. The fact that I felt it would be best if I deleted Instagram and Twitter on my phone for a few days says all we need to know about how cruel the online world can be.”
Stop vile hate
“The ensuing hate, abuse, and threats on social media were not really a surprise to me as it’s just the stark reality of the world we live in right now,” he continued.
“But as we’ve seen time and time again, across all different sports, it only takes one incident at the wrong time to have things completely blown out of proportion and bring out the worst in people who are so-called ‘fans’ of the sport. What shocked me was the extreme tone of the hate, abuse, and even the death threats I received.
“To the people who don’t understand or don’t agree with that, that’s fine with me. You can have your opinion. But to use those opinions to fuel hatred, abuse and threats of violence, not only to me, but to those closest to me as well, tells me these people are not true fans of the sport.,” he concluded.