Nicholas Latifi is not confident of much success when he races on home soil for the first time in his Formula 1 career this weekend.
The Williams racer has never taken part in the Canadian Grand Prix, given the event's absence from the annual schedule since 2019 due to the Covid pandemic. Now, the trip to Montreal has returned and, although Latifi is excited to compete in front of a friendly crowd, he is not expecting fireworks.
"I've actually never even raced a car in Canada before," said the Montreal-born racer. "Sure, I've raced karts. But nothing more than that because there aren't any junior categories on home soil. A lot of European drivers experience their home track before reaching F1... but that hasn't happened for me.
"Looking at the weekend, we're expecting Montreal to be one of the most challenging tracks on the calendar for a few reasons. First, as a street track it will have a lot of bumps and character, and the curbs are unique and different to those at a lot of other tracks.
"We know how aggressive these cars feel and how they react on bumpy street tracks after Monaco and Baku. I'm expecting the car will feel very unpleasant with the bumps in Montreal and will be very, very tricky to get into the right window.
"It's pretty clear we're the car that's struggling the most for pace so far this season, and that I'm not getting the feeling I need to get the most out of it either. Montreal is a track that, I can say with a fair amount of confidence right now, doesn't really suit our car so much and it's going to highlight a lot of its weaknesses again."
Latifi will hope to be proven wrong as he faces a fight to save his F1 career. Time is running our for the Canadian to prove he can cut it at this level – he is one of just two drivers yet to score a point so far this season – with his replacement waiting in the wings if Williams decide a fresh face is needed.
According to reports, Williams have struck a loan-style deal to give Alpine reserve Oscar Piastri a seat for the 2023 season. The move would give the F2 champion a chance to acclimatise to the premier series before eventually replacing the veteran Fernando Alonso when he decides he has had enough.
