He switched to Prema PowerTeam for the 2014 European F3 Championship. The opening weekend at Silverstone included qualifying and finishing second behind team-mate Esteban Ocon in race two. While the Frenchman eventually beat Max Verstappen to the title, Latifi did not finish on the podium again. Tenth in the European F3 standings, Latifi also raced in Formula Renault 3.5 and GP2 during 2014. He joined Tech 1 Racing for the last three weekends of that year’s FR3.5 campaign and finished second at Jerez. Inconspicuous on his GP2 debut with Hilmer Motorsport in Abu Dhabi, he finished fifth in the Macau GP when reunited with his Prema Dallara F314-Mercedes-Benz.
Continued Formula Renault 3.5 and GP2 careers
Latifi remained in the FR3.5 World Series in 2015 with Arden International. He scored eight top 10 finishes and led the early laps of the opening race at Spa-Francorchamps. A possible podium in race one at the Hungaroring was lost when he punctured a tyre following contact with Matthieu Vaxivière. Four race weekends as part of MP Motorsport’s GP2 line-up failed to yield a top 10 finish.
Formula 1 with Renault, GP2 with DAMS
Despite little outright success so far, Latifi was named as Renault’s test driver for 2016 – driving an old Lotus E20-Renault at Silverstone in May. He joined DAMS for the 2016 GP2 season and spent four seasons with the French team as he eventually developed into a race winner. Again Latifi began the year with his best result of the season – second in Barcelona’s feature race – but he slumped to a disappointing 16th in the final standings.
The GP2 Series was rebranded as FIA Formula 2 in 2017 and Latifi showed a welcome upturn in form. Having lost Barcelona’s sprint race by running wide with four laps to go and second at the Red Bull Ring, he then started Silverstone’s reverse-grid sprint race from pole position and led throughout to atone for Barcelona and score his breakthrough victory. Second in Hungary (feature race) and at Jerez (sprint), Latifi finished the 2017 F2 season in an much improved fifth overall.
He also tested a contemporary F1 car for the first time when he completed 54 laps in a Renault RS17 during the Hungaroring rookie tests on 1 August 2017.