Williams giving 'full support' to Latifi amid confidence struggles

Williams boss Jost Capito says the British outfit is putting its full support behind Nicholas Latifi to steer the Canadian back on the right path after a troubled start to his 2022 season.

So far, Latifi's 2022 campaign has been a story of messy weekends, the worst of which took place in Saudi Arabia where the Williams charger crashed in both qualifying and on race day.

Since Jeddah, Latifi admits that his confidence has eroded, and Melbourne and Imola only confirmed the Canadian's struggles. Along with Haas' Mick Schumacher, he is the only driver who has yet to score a top-ten finish this season, having never finished higher than P16.

"Since Saudi, I just haven't had a great feeling with the car, even before the crashes," Latifi said after last weekend's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

"Any driver will say, when you don't trust the car underneath you, what its going to do, it's going to be a very dangerous thing.

"Obviously dangerous I don't mean in the aspect of safety, I mean in terms of the car catching you off, having incidents and just not being comfortable to push to the limit.

"Even when the pace is relatively okay, or strong, it's not necessarily that I still have the feeling like, 'Okay, I'm happy with the way I feel'.

• Read also: Albon 'almost made it work' at Emilia Romagna GP

"I think that's something that'll just come with time, so, in that sense, [I'm] happy to do all the laps of a very tricky condition race, so I'll take those positives."

In terms of pure pace, Capito believes there's little that separates Latifi from teammate Alex Albon who delivered to Williams in Melbourne its first point of 2022.

But confidence-wise, Capito admits that the two drivers aren't currently on the same level.

"Yeah, of course, I think it’s a heads game, isn’t it? He’s capable to drive very fast and do the same lap times as Alex if he is in the right place, I’m sure," said Capito.

"The cars are a bit more difficult and trickier to drive than last year’s car and he has to get his head around it and he gets the full support from the team.

"And no, of course, if you have a couple of offs, you have to fight again the confidence then, but he will get the full support of the team and we are sure he will get there."

So far, Albon has adapted faster and better to Williams' FW44, and especially to the car's weaknesses, like its lack of downforce.

"Obviously, Alex is clearly more comfortable with the car," said Latifi.

"Regardless of the pace of the car, we know we're missing downforce, we know we're struggling with balance issues. This is clear.

"But he's doing a better job of managing it, so I have to get to that level. For me, it is just a pure feel and confidence thing with the car.

"It's not a driving style, [where] I'm braking too late, not carrying enough speed, this and that.

"Because, if you don't feel the confidence of the car, you can't begin to work on the more technical aspects when you eventually will have to work on those things, but that'll always be the case.

"So, confidence first, and then everything else is secondary, really."

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