F1’s poisoned chalice? Abrupt race director exit cycle could repeat itself

The abrupt parting of ways between Niels Wittich and the FIA suggests more than meets the eye than the official line states.

On Tuesday, the FIA confirmed via a short statement that race director Niels Wittich is to vacate his role with immediate effect, with a new name taking over in the position.

Niels Wittich and the FIA break up

Seemingly out of nowhere, the FIA confirmed Wittich will no longer serve as race director in F1, with a statement forthcoming from the governing body.

“The FIA can confirm that Niels Wittich has stepped down from his position as F1 Race Director to pursue new opportunities,” read the statement.

“Niels has fulfilled his numerous responsibilities as Race Director with professionalism and dedication. We thank him for his commitment and we wish him the best for the future.”

In his place will be a completely new name, with no F1 experience, as F2 and F3 race director Rui Marques steps up into the position.

“Rui Marques will assume the role of Race Director from the Las Vegas Grand Prix,” the FIA confirmed.

“Rui brings a wealth of experience having previously served as track marshal, scrutineer, national and international steward, Deputy Race Director, and Race Director in various championships.”

Given the abrupt nature of the announcement, combined with the timing of it being before the end of the season, the question is obviously whether or not Wittich’s departure was made on his own terms or not.

An FIA spokesperson did not directly address this topic when asked by PlanetF1.com, while Germany’s Motorsport-Magazin has quoted Wittich as emphasising that he “did not resign” from his role and was informed of his dismissal shortly before official confirmation was made.

Starting afresh with another race director, with no Formula 1 experience or transitionary period is far from an ideal situation for the top rung of motorsport, but it’s a situation that appears largely self-inflicted.

A third race director since F1 2021 – but why?

Wittich was approaching the end of his second season as the sole F1 race director, having taken over the role fully at the start of 2023 following a season in which the FIA tried out a rotation between race director in the aftermath of Abu Dhabi 2021.

The reason for this was due to the untenable position of Michael Masi following the events of that race, in which questionable decision-making under the regulations had a direct influence on the outcome of the title fight between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

Masi had been a firm hand at the tiller at that point, finishing off his third season in charge and building up an air of authority and certainty – Masi had been an apprentice of the late Charlie Whiting, whose tragic passing at the 2019 Australian Grand Prix brought to an end his 22-year stint in charge of enforcing and moulding F1’s rulebooks.

Masi was the heir apparent and fared well, mostly, until the events of that fateful night at the Yas Marina Circuit brought a swift end to that credibility and placed the FIA in a position of needing to start afresh – having Masi in the role would undermine its authoritative position.

To that end, it turned to the experienced hands of WEC race director Eduardo Freitas and DTM Race Director Niels Wittich – the duo alternated in the F1 role throughout ’22, until the Japanese Grand Prix.

That weekend at Suzuka resulted in Freitas being removed from the rotation – while never officially confirmed, it’s believed that his call to send a crane out on track while Pierre Gasly was not yet behind the Safety Car queue cost him his F1 career.

Following an investigation, the FIA said of the decision: “The review panel acknowledged that having recovery cranes on track at Suzuka during the weather conditions is a sensitive matter in view of the tragic incidents of the past.

“The panel determined that in hindsight, as the weather conditions were changing, it would have been prudent to have delayed the deployment of the recovery vehicles on track.”

Lacking that prudency, Freitas was removed, leaving Wittich as the full-time F1 race director by himself.

It hasn’t been a hugely easy ride for Wittich as he’s made the role his own, not helped by his decision to strictly enforce the jewellery and underwear regulations that saw Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel both poke fun at the rules – Hamilton by wearing an excessive amount of jewellery to the FIA’s press conference, and Vettel by wearing his underwear outside of his race suit.

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While Wittich isn’t directly responsible for the decision-making of the stewards at individual Grand Prix weekends, albeit being in close contact with the chairman of the stewards throughout; he is closely tied to the administration of the rules and the ethos of policing that has been instilled under FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

If Wittich has been fired, the question is what he did to trigger this. With the stewarding calls of recent weeks resulting in outcries of accusations of bias towards individual drivers, as well as the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association directly calling upon Ben Sulayem to alter his methods of communication with professional sportspeople, might Wittich have expressed unhappiness with the direction of travel of the governing body? Butting heads with FIA leadership, as with any job, is a surefire way to jeopardise any job.

After all, Wittich is but the latest in a growing list of departures from the FIA in recent times.

Last month, director of communications Luke Skipper and secretary general for mobility Jacob Bangsgaard both left for new opportunities, while FIA CEO – the governing body’s first – Natalie Robyn resigned having been appointed by Ben Sulayem in late 2022. Also in late ’22, sporting director Steve Nielsen left to be replaced by Tim Malyons, while single-seater technical director Tim Goss was replaced by Nikolas Tombazis.

Granted, Wittich’s weekend in Brazil was far from perfect – the sight of Nico Hulkenberg wandering around beside the track under yellow flags during the Sprint while Wittich dawdled on whether or not to neutralise the race was uncomfortable, and the unusual delay also allowed a championship-affecting race moment to occur as McLaren swapped their drivers around in the nick of time before the Virtual Safety Car was deployed.

Given that Wittich (and Freitas) came into their roles as a result of a previous race director making calls that benefitted the closeness of championship action, the optics of such decisions – while more likely completely innocent – are far from welcome. Whether such decision-making, or other factors from Brazil, played a role in the FIA releasing Wittich remains to be seen but, whatever the cause, it’s left the governing body with it all to do once again.

Rui Marques is an experienced multi-series motorsport race director and administrator, cut from a similar cloth to Freitas, but lacks F1 experience. Given the vast rulebook and requirement for instinct that can take years to fettle, it’s far from ideal to have a complete newbie in the position – while Marques may prove the perfect fit in the long-term, there no longer seems to be an appetite for allowing these inexperienced race director to find their feet and flourish in the role.

This is particularly unusual as Herbie Blash, who worked with Whiting at the FIA as deputy race director between 1995 and 2016, was brought back in as a senior advisor to the race director as of 2022. Despite his input, wisdom, and proven abilities, the directors he’s advising haven’t worked out – if Blash’s advice isn’t translating into what the FIA seeks, does this come down to pushback from the directors in place or is Blash’s advice not congruent with what the FIA seeks?

Having had a single race director for 22 years, the FIA is moving onto its third in three years and seemingly is adopting a zero-tolerance attitude towards mistakes and errors in judgment.

With so many races, such a tense political environment, and a governing body within which there appears to be visible turmoil, Marques simply must be given the time and opportunity to learn and grow as he starts from a baseline of zero – otherwise, this cycle will repeat in the not-too-distant future.

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