Nicholas Latifi says the way Formula 1 TV pictures and radio were relayed “skewed” perceptions of his strange Suzuka wrong turn during Japanese Grand Prix free practice, but admits “it was my mistake”.
Latifi became the subject of much scorn after FP2 for F1’s Japanese Grand Prix, having turned right too early for Suzuka’s final chicane and into a dead-end.
TV replays of the error were accompanied by a radio message in which Latifi told Williams “not sure what happened there… the car… a little strange… anyways, I’m OK”.
Oops 😬#JapaneseGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/WxXC4ZDeGR
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 7, 2022
This led some to think Latifi was blaming his wrong turn on some kind of mystery car issue, when in fact in real time that message was relayed after he’d failed to make a successful 180-degree spin turn out of the escape road, and then had to reverse to get the car pointing the right way.
“In the end it was my mistake, but the radio was a bit delayed from what was shown on TV,” Latifi told reporters after qualifying 20th on his first visit to Suzuka.
“It was totally my fault, but I was getting some calls from my engineer – we were supposed to do another lap but then we did a last-minute thing to box, so I was changing something on my steering wheel, looking down, and when I looked up I saw the turn – which was obviously not the right turn!
“But again, not having had the proper laps yet I still was getting my bearings around the track, so I turned and then basically because it was obviously not the right turn, which I didn’t realise right away, it was a much sharper turn, the car just kept understeering and going straight.
“So I kinda came on the radio right away and said, ‘ooh, what’s going on there?’, but then I realised this is the wrong turn and a much slower turn. That’s why. I think the fact the car didn’t fully spin around – at some point it was spinning and then it just understeered straight.
“It was my mistake – a funny one! But the radio message is a bit skewed.”
Latifi said his trainer “teased me a little bit” after the error, but was also good humoured about the incident, saying “no harm, no foul”.
He received a five-place grid penalty for colliding with Zhou Guanyu’s Alfa Romeo at the Singapore GP, which will have no effect considering Latifi qualified slowest of the 20 runners at Suzuka anyway.
Latifi expressed frustration that F1’s stewards penalised him without summoning him to explain the Singapore incident, or considering his explanation that Zhou was in his mirror’s blindspot before they made contact, but doesn’t “expect anything to be done”.
“I haven’t heard anything back,” Latifi said. “I don’t expect to hear anything back. I’m sure in all honesty they’ve just brushed it under the rug and that’s that.
“[I] exchanged briefly a few words with Seb [Vettel] after the [Thursday] press conference, and he kind of agreed with me actually that it was quite harsh the way they went about it, but I don’t expect anything to be done.”
Latifi felt his final result in qualifying at Suzuka disguised an improved performance in which he was only two tenths slower than Williams team-mate Alex Albon (16th) and within three tenths of making Q2.
“In the bigger picture I can’t be disappointed seeing what the gap is, especially as I know it wasn’t a perfect lap,” Latifi added.
“Seeing how far off I was in FP3 and the steps I was able to progressively make with each new set [of tyres], happy with that. To be only two tenths off Q2 I’m pretty pleased with.”
