Latifi began karting in 2009 and won the Rotax DD2 class at the Florida Winter Tour in 2012. He moved into single-seaters with the 2012 Italian Formula Three Championship, placing seventh. In 2013 he competed concurrently in FIA Formula 3 European Championship (fifteenth) and the British Formula 3 International Series (fifth), taking a podium at Brands Hatch. He competed alongside future Formula One drivers Esteban Ocon and Max Verstappen in European F3 in 2014, finishing tenth with Prema Powerteam.
In 2015 he joined Formula Renault 3.5 full-time with Arden Motorsport, finishing eleventh. Throughout this period he also competed in sportscar events including the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge and the Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain.
Latifi's GP2 debut came in 2014, replacing Daniel Abt at Hilmer Motorsport for two races. A cameo with MP Motorsport in 2015 added eight more starts. His first full campaign arrived in 2016 with DAMS; it was a difficult season — he finished sixteenth, 101 points behind teammate Alex Lynn — though he set the fastest time in post-season testing. He scored three points finishes, including a podium at Barcelona.
He stayed with DAMS for 2017 as the series rebranded to FIA Formula 2. He won the Silverstone sprint from third on the grid and took a rain-affected third at Monza, finishing fifth in the championship with 178 points. He also claimed a feature race win from pole at Spa late in the year.
The 2018 season was a step back. A new car was introduced that Latifi admitted did not suit his driving style, forcing him to relearn his approach. He managed one win at Spa-Francorchamps and three podiums, finishing ninth with 91 points. Despite the results deficit, he outqualified teammate Alex Albon in two of the last three rounds. Williams signed him to their Driver Academy at the end of the year.
Latifi's 2019 campaign was his strongest in single-seaters. He won the opening feature race at Sakhir, led the championship after Baku, and won at Barcelona. A difficult Monaco weekend — during which he was erroneously placed a lap down under a re-start — and a Nyck de Vries victory at Paul Ricard swung the title lead. Latifi continued to win, taking the Hungary feature race, but a cancelled Spa weekend (following the death of Anthoine Hubert) and a point-less Monza round effectively ended his challenge.
He finished runner-up to de Vries with 214 points, four wins, eight podiums, and four fastest laps in the season. DAMS took its first GP2/F2 constructors' title since 2014. Before the final round at Yas Marina, Williams promoted him to Formula One for 2020.
Latifi partnered George Russell at Williams for three seasons. The team was in severe financial difficulty when he joined, and the 2020 car failed to score a single point across the entire season. Latifi finished twenty-first in the drivers' championship.
In 2021 Williams improved considerably. Latifi scored his maiden F1 points at the Hungarian Grand Prix in a chaotic race affected by a first-lap incident, rising to third before finishing seventh (later promoted to sixth after Sebastian Vettel's disqualification). He scored again at the rain-affected Belgian Grand Prix, which ran entirely under safety car conditions. He finished seventeenth in the championship with seven points.
At the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Latifi crashed on lap 53 while battling Mick Schumacher, triggering a safety car with five laps remaining. Race director Michael Masi's subsequent controversial decision to permit only the five lapped cars between championship contenders Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen to unlap themselves — rather than all lapped cars — allowed Verstappen to close up and race Hamilton for one final lap on fresh tyres. Verstappen overtook Hamilton and won his first world championship. Latifi received widespread online abuse including death threats in the aftermath, which he publicly condemned.
He remained at Williams for 2022 alongside returning Alex Albon. The season was difficult; Latifi scored a sole ninth-place finish at the rain-affected Japanese Grand Prix after a well-timed switch to intermediate tyres, finishing twentieth in the championship with two points. Williams replaced him with Logan Sargeant for 2023.
After leaving Formula One, Latifi enrolled at London Business School to study for an MBA, which he completed in 2025. He co-founded Leve Agave Spirit, a mid-strength agave spirits brand that launched in the UK in 2025.
Latifi's motorsport career is characterised by a long junior pathway — eight years in formulae before reaching Formula One at age 24 — and a Formula 2 career that culminated in a genuine title fight in 2019. His three Formula One seasons with an underperforming Williams team provided limited opportunity to demonstrate the pace he had shown at junior level. The Abu Dhabi 2021 incident fixed his name in Formula One history in circumstances largely outside his control.