Williams believe there is a direct link between Nicholas Latifi's infamous crash at last year's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and his underwhelming form this season.
Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen were the protagonists during that race last December, but Latifi unwittingly played a larger part than expected. Hamilton led and was on course to wrap up his eighth world title, but things changed when the Canadian crashed with a few laps to go.
It sparked the safety car which was mishandled by then-race director Michael Masi. The Australian sped up the procedure to ensure racing could resume for the last lap, which then led to Verstappen overtaking on much fresher tyres and snatching the title away from Hamilton.
Latifi later revealed he had been targeted by social media trolls for his part in that mess, even though his involvement was inadvertent. He was sent death threats and other abuse, the "extreme tone" of which "shocked" the Canadian driver.
Speaking about the role Williams played at that time, team principal Jost Capito told the High Performance podcast: "We had to keep giving him the confidence. We said that there was nothing wrong. Everything was fine, but it was very difficult up until then because it was the end of the season.
"He was not around here every single day and also we didn't interfere too much as we knew what was happening, we knew what was going on. He switched his social media off but if we would have interfered too much, I think we would have made the situation worse. That's something everybody has to get over on their own. He was fully aware that he had our backing, that we were absolutely convinced he didn't do anything wrong."
Despite Latifi's attempt to move on, it has been another difficult year. He remains the only driver yet to score a point this season, and he looks likely to be replaced by Williams as his contract expires at the end of the current campaign.
Capito has a lot of sympathy for his driver, though, and feels things might have been different had it not been for that Abu Dhabi mess. "The crash, of course, it shouldn't have happened but if you're racing then crashes can happen," the German added.
"And we never blame a driver for that, it's possible to crash. Otherwise, you have to stay at home if you don't want to crash. I think that was also a part of why it took him quite a while in the season to find his competitiveness.
"I'm sure it affected his driving after that. It would have affected my driving a lot, I am absolutely convinced of this. So I can understand that and this is why we gave him the confidence and supported him all season and we knew he would come back."
