What Formula 1’s Nicholas Latifi loves about Miami
Next week’s Formula 1 race is a Miami first but for some of the stars of the track, the race is a homecoming.
“I mean, for me, in particular, it’s going to be quite cool,” Nicholas Latifi, 26, who drives for the Williams Team, told The Post. “Outside of Toronto, where I grew up, Miami is where I did most of my karting and racing.”
Latifi, who will be driving with teammate Alex Albon in the May 8 Miami Grand Prix, says that while most of his time in South Florida was spent training and at his family’s vacation home in Boca Raton, he is looking forward to getting to know South Beach this year from his race week perch at the W Hotel South Beach.
“We do get to go to very nice and exciting places for Formula 1, obviously. But as a driver, you’re there for work first and foremost. So yeah, definitely will not be able to partake in late-night activities,” Latifi said. “But fortunately, I’m coming in a little bit earlier just to kind of get acclimatized to the jetlag, so I’ll have a few days off to just relax.”
Ahead of Miami’s most exciting racing event, Latifi told The Post about his Miami and coming to grips with the new course.
What do you think about this new track?
A new track in general is always a very exciting and unique challenge for drivers and teams. I always love discovering new tracks. It’s fun to see how quickly you can get the rhythm of it, you know, find your references and really get up to speed.
Specifically, a free track [like the Miami International Autodrome], is always fun. There’s always a different element, getting dragged into the walls and trying to judge everything. I was going to say you have to be centimeter perfect, but really it’s millimeter perfect — it’s the difference between something good and something not so good.
You’re Canadian, but tell me about your relationship to South Florida.
It’s kind of a Canadian thing to go to Miami in the winter. We are total snowbirds.
As a kid, I would go on holidays with my family, especially over Christmas breaks into New Year. But then there has just been a lot of karting in the winter. Where I was from, there’s a lot of snow in the winter so probably two weekends out of the month in the winter, I was down in Florida, doing some races and spending a lot of time there. In more recent years, I’ve always gone down there for my winter training camps and I had driving facilities there. So yeah, I’m very familiar with Florida in general and Miami in particular.
So was it all work, or did you find time for fun?
When you’re there for driving, it’s the track, the hotel, the airport and then you’re off. I would say most of the time I spent there has been for racing purposes — driving determined where I stayed.
But my family used to have a winter place in Boca Raton, but at the same time, we’ve also spent a lot of time, and probably more time, down in the Sunny Isles. When I’ve gone more recently, that’s the area where I tend to stay. Sometimes I’ve been a little bit closer to the city center in Brickell and that area.
My brother goes to the University of Miami, so I’ll meet up with him because I haven’t seen him since the Christmas holidays. And that allows me to go to a few nice restaurants.
Do you have a favorite Miami hotel or restaurant scene?
As far as hotels go, the W Hotel South Beach is definitely my favorite place to stay. Definitely looking forward to going back there.
I’m a big fan of Asian restaurants so Zuma comes to mind, of course, and Komodo. We also go to Milos.
Are you feeling confident ahead of the race?
Our team has been good going into new tracks, getting on top of what we need to do and how to optimize the car. It’s going to be a good opportunity for us hopefully. At the same time, we have to be realistic. We’re not in the position we want to be. But it doesn’t take away from the excitement of arriving in Miami to experience a brand-new event. I’m very much looking forward to that.
