‘New blood’ – FIA president announces another key change for F1 2025 season

Several months after the news that Formula 1 race director Niels Wittich would be departing his role with three races remaining in 2024, FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has stated that the F1 2025 season will feature a cast of rotating race directors.

Formula 1 will feature multiple race directors during the F1 2025 season, according to a recent statement from Ben Sulayem.

Mohammed Ben Sulayem: ‘More than one FIA race director’ in F1 2025 season

Appearing at an FIA event at former Spanish Grand Prix venue Jarama on Friday, the FIA president appeared to confirm the change for F1 2025, insisting that Formula 1’s governing body requires several people up to the job of race director.

PlanetF1.com has approached the FIA for comment.

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According to Spanish publication Marca, Ben Sulayem said: “Who and how many is a question we will know soon, in the next few days.

“But for sure there will be new blood and there will be more than one [race director]. That’s for sure.

“There have been people learning, there have been people working behind all the time. You can’t just throw somebody into this big challenge.

“And then teams can complain, drivers can complain, but then they don’t want to pay for it.

“I’m being very, very honest and straight with you, this takes a lot of investment.

“It has taken us more than two and a half years to get to what we are achieving now. Do we have the results? We will know the results when the season starts.

‘It is very important. What if the race director decides not to go or if he gets sick?

“It’s the same as the FIA. If something happens to me tomorrow, the FIA will continue to function without me, so this has to be a system. It’s not about individuals.

“There are a lot of mistakes and then you blame the FIA. It’s easy to blame the FIA. Why can’t you be productive in your criticism and say: ‘How can we find a solution?’

‘But where is the solution? The solution is in training, the solution is to bring people in.

“Is it about diversity? No, we talk about diversity and we say they say: ‘You bring this from this country or this woman or something.’

“That’s an insult. We don’t have women because we have to take 30 per cent, we take women on the basis of merit and credibility because they are good.

“We hire non-European people from other countries because they are good, they are trained, they have the passion to compete, not because I have to have this colour, this religion.

“Then you won’t have a good FIA, a strong FIA. You will have a weak one because you will not deliver what you promise. For us, it’s a big challenge.”

Ben Sulayem’s comments come after the FIA last year announced plans for a new officials department, aimed at training the next generation of officials in motor racing in the hope of giving F1’s governing body greater strength in depth.

Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA’s single-seater director, recently commented that it will make the FIA “a more professional body” going forward.

This would not be the first time the F1 race director role was shared between multiple people. After the sudden passing of long-serving race director Charlie Whiting in 2019, and the departure of his replacement Michael Masi, Wittich and Eduardo Freitas alternated the role in 2023.

Heading into the following season, Wittich took on the role full-time.

However, much confusion clouded the closing three races of the 2024 Formula 1 season after the sudden departure of race director Wittich.

Ahead of Las Vegas, the FIA announced that Wittich had stepped down from his role as race director, effective immediately. However, Sky F1 claimed that Wittich did not voluntarily leave that role and that he was instead fired.

Rui Marques, a former race director for Formula 2 and Formula 3, took on the role for the remaining races of 2024. During that time, he still maintained his role as Formula 2 race director.

Now it appears as if the FIA intends to return to the rotating race director format it introduced in 2023, with the implication that there will be new faces involved as well.

Ben Sulayem’s comments came hours after the FIA’s United Against Online Abuse campaign published its latest findings, claiming that sports are facing a “critical threat” of losing competitors, referees and officials due to the “escalation” of abusive messages online.

Last month, the FIA published updated stewards’ guidelines for misconduct, leaving drivers at risk of race bans and points deductions in F1 2025.

It follows a public stand off between Red Bull driver and reigning four-time World Champion Max Verstappen and the FIA at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix.

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