Williams CEO Jost Capito has explained why the British racing outfit has parted ways with Nicholas Latifi and stated that his replacement for 2023 is “still a decision to be made”.
The Canadian will leave Williams at the end of the 2022 Formula 1 campaign after three seasons at the team, scoring a total of seven points up until now.
The news didn’t come as a massive shock to fans with Capito highlighting that Latifi’s F1 form hadn’t been the same since his shunt in the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix which resulted in a wave of online abuse.
“As I mentioned in Monza, I believe that Nicky’s performance has been impacted by last year’s Abu Dhabi outcome and the circumstances after that,” said Capito in Saturday’s morning media session.
“I think his performance was not on the level of the way he expected his performance himself and we didn’t expect his performance to be like this.
“After three years I think it’s right for the team and the driver to find different opportunities for both.”
His departure was announced a couple of weeks after Nyck de Vries substituted for Alex Albon at the Italian Grand Prix after the Thai-British driver suffered from a bout of appendicitis and underwent surgery.
After clocking in a very impressive performance, it is understood that Williams is interested in signing de Vries to replace the outbound Latifi. However, Capito explained that they have yet to decide who will take the vacant seat.
“I’ve known him for a while now and I know what he’s capable of, so I expected quite a lot of him, and he delivered what we expected,” he said. “I was most surprised about his performance in the car with a full fuel load because he had never driven a Formula 1 car with a full fuel load.
“And then handling the start, not losing places and keeping up with everybody with a full fuel load – that was the most impressive performance from him.”
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