Specsavers have taken a pop at Williams driver Nicholas Latifi after the Canadian appeared to forget the track layout at the Japanese Grand Prix. Latifi turned into a run-off road meters before the tight and twisty final chicane at Suzuka.
The road can be used as part of a different circuit layout at Suzuka but has never featured in an F1 race. Latifi appeared to blame the car for the issue over his team radio moments later.
He said: “Not sure what happened there. The car… That was strange. Anyway I’m okay.” The Williams star reversed out of the run-off area and was able to continue in FP2.
However, Specsavers were quick to issue a response, appearing to accuse Latifi himself of making the error. Replying to a video of the incident on F1’s Twitter page, Specsavers posted: “Maybe he was looking for us”.
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But fans were quick to take to social media, baffled at the unusual nature of Latifi’s error. @Jallen_19 said: “Blaming it on the car feeling ‘strange’ just makes it fifty times worse. Say oops, spin it around and carry on. People would mock you less.”
@cjk1 added: “Without doubt the worst driver to ever compete in the sport.” @MattyWTF1 explained: “Absolutely love how Latifi tried to play off taking the wrong corner as ‘something strange’ with the car
“This man is an icon and will be missed.” However, other viewers tried to defend the Williams driver after the comical error.
@Lementus explained: “Nahhh, I assume he went off course because he felt something was wrong with the car. I wouldn’t think that someone who’s raced for this long would forget a track layout lmfao. He is not a good driver but I would at the very least assume he’d know the layout.”
