Latifi tried a go-kart for the first time when he was 12: "I wasn't interested"

Nicholas Latifi will race his first Formula 1 race with Williams in 2020, should the season finally start. However, the 24-year-old Canadian admits that he didn't get into a kart for the first time until he was 12 years old.

Different route

While drivers like Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc drove in several single-seaters, Latifi started with a race in a Ford Mustang at Daytona. “I remember hitting a few missed shifts flat-out going down the banking”, says Latifi to Formula 1.com.

“It was quite an unconventional route into motorsport", Latifi admits. “I didn't come from a motor racing family, or a motor racing background.” Instead, he first drove a go-kart in Montreal, until he found a go-kart track closer to his family in Toronto. Latifi turned up more and more at race weekends and former IMSA racer and karting track owner David Tennyson saw something in the young Canadian.

Finally convinced

“He kind of convinced me to start racing”, says Latifi about the man who still travels with him as a mentor. “The funny thing is, I had to be asked a few times to try [racing karts], because I had no interest in racing; it was something that I was more just wanting to do as a hobby."

“On the third occasion, I was kind of pushed", says Latifi. "My parents were like, 'If you don't like it, you don't have to continue, so you might as well just try one race.' So I tried one race and I was hooked… I was 13 and the passion just kind of grew from there, and the love for it, and the rest is history."