When the 2021 Abu Dhabi GPseemed to have already reached its peak, where no one was looking, Nicholas Latifi was battling with Mick Schumacher in the closing stages of the race for P15 as the pair went side-by-side into turn 9.

The Williams driver then, unfortunately, ran wide out of track and ultimately crashed at turn 14, prompting a Safety Car, which led to the controversial end to the race that saw Max Verstappen crowned as the 2021 World Champion.

In December, days after the conclusion of a heart-stopping F1 finale, Latifi posted a statement on his social media channels exposing all the social abuse he received because of his unintentionally crucial role in the definition of the World Drivers Championship at Yas Marina.

A message from me after the events of Abu Dhabi https://t.co/uYj7Ct6ANQ pic.twitter.com/eThFec8nAi

— Nicholas Latifi (@NicholasLatifi) December 21, 2021

The Williams driver spoke on what was the launch of the 2022 FW44 challenger for the upcoming season and told, as quoted by TheRace.com, how he dealt with the hate and mentally kept strong after reading what some so-called fans shoot aiming at him.

“There was the more extreme death threats, that goes way over a line, the statement was quite important to make.”

“I was kind of debating what was the best way of addressing the situation. Ignoring it and returning to social media like normal was an option, but I felt it was an important opportunity to use my platform to spread an important message.”

“For me, it was not the nicest feeling on that first day [after Abu Dhabi]. I got over it after two days, but then these people that unfortunately maybe don’t deal with it so well for whatever reason and it can have extremely serious consequences.”

The 26-year-old didn’t waste the chance to highlight the positives of the hard time he went through at the end of 2021.

“In terms of support I got, Lewis did send me a message, a few days after, just before I released the statement. I won’t go into details of what he said.”

“I also got messages of support from other team members at Mercedes as well. The whole outcry of support on social media from multiple drivers, teams across so many different disciplines, was really nice to see and encouraging.”

Your FW44, ready for the challenges of 2022 💪 pic.twitter.com/4rXOwFaMyI

— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) February 15, 2022

Latifi explained how he hired a security detail after receiving some of the most aggressive messages after the last race of the latest championship, and how he’ll continue working on his way to support a global message of mental health and prevention of social abuse, in the near future, assuring: “there will be some things that I will be doing throughout the year.”

“Yeah, to be honest, it was something we considered. It sounds silly to some people but at the end of the day, you don’t know how serious people are, all it could take is one drunk fan at an airport or bump into someone who is having a bad day and is intoxicated under the influence of something and has these really extreme opinions.”

“All it takes is that one in a million person.”

“Some days I was back in London after the race, I did have some security with me when I was doing certain things.

“I went to Winter Wonderland with my girlfriend. I had some security detail with me on that.

“Sounds funny, sounds silly but we took threats seriously because you really don’t know what could happen. Unfortunately, it’s part of the world we live in.”