Nicholas Daniel Latifi (; born 29 June 1995) is a Canadian former racing driver who competed in Formula One from to .

Born in Montreal and raised in Toronto, Latifi is the son of Iranian-Canadian billionaire businessman Michael Latifi. Graduating from karting to junior formulae in 2012, Latifi made his racing debut in the Italian Formula Three Championship. He achieved his highest Formula Three finish at the 2013 British International Series, finishing fifth with Carlin. Making his GP2 Series debut in 2014, Latifi achieved a full-time drive for DAMS in 2016. After four full seasons in GP2—now known as the FIA Formula 2 Championship—Latifi finished runner-up to Nyck de Vries in .

Latifi served as a test driver for Renault from to , and as a reserve driver for Force India—later known as Racing Point—in . A member of the Williams Driver Academy since 2019, Latifi signed for Williams in to partner George Russell, making his Formula One debut at the , where he finished 11th. After a non-scoring season with the FW43, Latifi scored his maiden points finish at the in , repeating this feat in Belgium. Retaining his seat for , Latifi finished ninth at the rain-affected . Latifi was replaced by Logan Sargeant at the conclusion of the season, marking the end of his Formula One career.

Early and personal life Nicholas Daniel Latifi was born on 29 June 1995 in Montreal, Quebec, and grew up in North York, Toronto. He is the son of Michael Latifi, an Iranian-Canadian billionaire businessman who is the CEO of Sofina Foods, Inc. and also owns the British Virgin Islands company Nidala. His mother, Marilena Latifi (née Russo), an Italian-Canadian with Sicilian parents, was born into the Saputo family, which founded the dairy company Saputo Inc. Latifi has three siblings: Sophia, Michael Alexander (a voice actor), and Matthew. His car number, 6, references a nickname of his home city, Toronto.

Latifi attended Crescent School, an independent boys' school, graduating in 2013. He was named to the school's Alumni Wall of Honour in 2021. Because of his heavy racing schedule, he spent most of his high school years attending school remotely.

Latifi was a relative latecomer to motorsport and had a long junior career. He began karting at the age of thirteen. He then spent four years karting and eight years in junior formulae. As a result, he joined Formula One at the age of 24, which he said was "definitely on the older side."

After leaving Formula One, Latifi decided to quit motorsport altogether and enrolled at London Business School in 2023, to study for a Master of Business Administration (MBA). He completed his MBA program after two years of study and in 2025 announced his graduation. In the same year, he co-founded Leve Agave Spirit, a mid-strength (22% ABV) agave spirit brand that launched in the UK in 2025.

Junior racing career

Karting Latifi began his karting career in 2009. In 2010, he finished as the runner-up in the Rotax Junior class of the Canadian National Karting Championship. Latifi continued competing in Canadian and American karting series until 2012, when he won the Florida Winter Tour championship in the Rotax DD2 class. He later made an appearance in the Shifter ROK class of the Florida Winter Tour in 2015, competing against former Formula One drivers Rubens Barrichello and Nelson Piquet Jr.

Formula Three and Renault 3.5

Latifi spent four years in various European Formula Three competitions. He made his single-seater debut in the 2012 Italian Formula Three Championship with BVM, placing seventh with one win and four podiums.

In 2013, Latifi started the year in the Toyota Racing Series (Giles Motorsport), an early-season warm-up competition. He finished ninth. He then concurrently competed in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship and the British Formula 3 International Series, both with Carlin. He placed 15th in European Formula Three and fifth in British Formula Three, and took a podium in the latter competition at Brands Hatch. He also placed seventh at the 2013 Masters of Formula 3 race at Zandvoort.

2014 was a busy year for Latifi, who competed in 53 races across six competitions. In his sophomore European F3 campaign, he switched to Prema Powerteam and finished tenth. Although he competed against future F1 drivers Esteban Ocon and Max Verstappen, he scored a second-place finish at Silverstone and six top-five finishes. He skipped the final round of the season to compete in Formula Renault 3.5 with Tech 1 Racing, scoring a second-place finish at Jerez in the final race of the season. In November, he competed in the Macau Grand Prix, finishing fifth in the feature race.

In 2015, Latifi joined Formula Renault 3.5 full-time, spending the 2015 season with Arden Motorsport. He finished 11th, with his best finishes being two fourth-place results at Spa and at Spielberg.

Sportscar racing Latifi competed in the 2012 Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge for Rehagen Racing, driving a Ford Mustang GT. In 2014, he made an appearance in the Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain driving for Redline Racing at Rockingham. He retired from the first round but scored a fourth-place finish in the second round. He had a longer campaign in 2015, competing in four of the eight rounds and taking second place in the first race at Oulton Park. He finished 11th in the standings.

GP2 / FIA Formula 2 From 2016 to 2019, Latifi spent four full seasons in the GP2 Series and its successor, FIA Formula 2, all with the DAMS team. He also participated in cameos in 2014 and 2015.

2014–2016: Early campaigns in GP2 Latifi joined GP2 for two races in 2014, replacing Hilmer Motorsport's Daniel Abt, who dropped out due to Formula E commitments. He placed 22nd and 17th. In 2015, he competed in eight races with MP Motorsport, with a best finish of 11th at Sakhir. In 2016, Latifi joined GP2 full-time with DAMS, but had a difficult season and finished 16th, 101 points behind teammate Alex Lynn. He scored three points finishes, including a podium at the season opener in Barcelona. However, he set the fastest time in post-season testing.

2017–2018: Maiden victories Latifi remained in the category as it rebranded to the FIA Formula 2 Championship in . He led most of the Barcelona sprint race, but lost the lead after running wide through the gravel, and settled for third. He picked up his maiden F2 race win at the Silverstone sprint race, when he started third, grabbed the lead at the start, and dominated the rest of the race. At Monza, he fought his way back from 14th to third during the rain-affected feature race. He placed fifth in the championship with 178 points, thirteen points behind teammate Oliver Rowland. For the year, he collected one win and nine podiums in 22 races. Motorsport.com ranked him the No. 14 junior single-seater driver of 2017, predicting that he could be "a genuine threat for the title" in 2018. Latifi took a step back in 2018, when a new F2 car was introduced. He opined that the new car was poorly suited to his driving style and that he was forced to "change pretty much everything I know about driving, all my natural instincts." He was hampered by qualifying issues and occasionally chaotic race starts, but mounted notable recovery drives at Bahrain (pit lane to tenth), Baku (last to fifth), Monaco (18th to ninth), Paul Ricard (17th to seventh), and Spielberg (19th to 11th). All together, he scored three podiums and one win at Spa-Francorchamps, and finished the season in ninth place with 91 points, 121 points behind third-placed teammate (and future F1 teammate) Alex Albon. At the end of the season, PaddockScout opined that "once Latifi got up to speed with the new car, he wasn't far off [Albon's pace], outqualifying him in two of the last three rounds," and predicted a bounce-back season in 2019. Latifi joined the Williams Driver Academy at the end of the season.

2019: Runner-up in final season

In 2019, Latifi got off to an excellent start and challenged for the F2 title for much of the year. He won the first feature race at Sakhir, led the championship after the second round in Baku after winning the sprint race, and won the feature race at Barcelona. However, he lost the title lead to Nyck de Vries after a difficult showing at Monaco (during which Latifi was erroneously placed one lap down during a re-start) and a de Vries win at Paul Ricard. He did not score a podium finish until the feature race at Silverstone, where he finished second. He dominated the feature race win at Hungary, but de Vries finished second to keep him at arm's-length in the title race.

A cancelled weekend at Spa-Francorchamps (due to the death of Anthoine Hubert) and a point-less weekend at Monza effectively ended Latifi's title fight, with the Canadian admitting that he would "focus on consolidating second in the championship". He held on to second place with two second-place finishes in the final four races. Before the season finale at Yas Marina, Williams promoted him to Formula One for the 2020 season. Latifi scored four wins, eight podiums, and four fastest laps to end the season in second place with 214 points, ten points ahead of teammate Sérgio Sette Câmara. In addition, DAMS won its first GP2/F2 title since 2014. Formula Scout ranked Latifi as the No. 10 junior single-seater driver of 2019, and the No. 5 racer in F2.

Formula One career Latifi tested for Renault in and . In May 2016, he drove a F1 car for the first time when he tested the Renault-powered Lotus E20 (Renault had recently repurchased the Lotus F1 Team) at Silverstone. In 2017, he drove the Renault R.S.17 at Barcelona and the Hungaroring.

In , Latifi became Force India's reserve and test driver. In this capacity, he participated in his first F1 race weekend, driving in a practice session in Montreal. He also joined several other F1 practice sessions during the season, and tested the Force India VJM11 twice.

After signing for the Williams Driver Academy, Latifi became Williams' test and reserve driver for . He made his testing debut with Williams at Sakhir, and continued testing during and after the season. He also participated in six FP1 sessions.

Williams (2020–2022)

Bankruptcy scare

When Latifi joined the Williams senior team in 2020, the team was facing bankruptcy. The racing press reported that Latifi's signature brought Williams €30 million or $40 million in sponsorship money from his family's enterprises, including Sofina Foods (his father's company) and Lavazza (one of Sofina's business partners). Latifi also brought in sponsorship money from the Royal Bank of Canada. However, Latifi pushed back against the "pay driver" label, noting that while "the reality of motorsport is that it is an expensive sport", his F2 performances had more than met the FIA Super License benchmarks to compete in Formula One.

After Latifi signed with Williams, the COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated the team's financial issues. The team parted ways with title sponsor ROKiT, claiming that the latter had failed to timely pay its sponsorship dues. Michael Latifi provided further support to the team by working with HSBC to refinance Williams' debts, which provided the team with an immediate £28m cash injection.

2020

Williams promoted Latifi to the senior team for , replacing Robert Kubica and partnering former Formula 2 competitor George Russell. Due to a Canadian dispute with the FIA, he spent the year racing under an American license, but F1 officially treated him as a Canadian.