Don’t underestimate how tough a job F1’s new race director faces · RaceFans

The FIA Formula 1 race director tends to get blamed for things which don’t necessarily fall within their domain.

Penalty decisions, to take one example, are a particularly common cause for confusion among fans. The race director can – and often does – query incidents which they feel should be looked at. But it’s the stewards who do the looking-at.

It’s the stewards who decide whether to penalise a driver and, if so, how. Nonetheless, the race director often gets it in the ear from those who disapprove of decisions they didn’t make.

That much was clear in the reaction from some on social media yesterday to the news of Niels Wittich’s surprise departure from the role.

But the timing of the announcement – three rounds before the end of the season, with both championships hanging in the balance – invited the interpretation this was not a long-planned change. It was striking, too, that the news was hurried out shortly before Formula One Management confirmed details of its widely-teased new pre-season launch event.

So, few were surprised when, soon afterwards, came word Wittich hadn’t chosen to move on, as the FIA’s statement claimed, in order to “pursue new opportunities”.

The F1 race director’s responsibility is to ensure the safe and smooth running of grands prix as laid down by the FIA’s rules. Wittich appears to have done this well, certainly compared to the standard set by his predecessor, whose error during his final race in charge plunged F1 into crisis as it arguably swung the outcome of the 2021 world championship.

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F1 race director is a uniquely demanding role, where decisions are taken in split seconds and the stakes, as Michael Masi discovered, are extremely high. He has been thrust into the role at almost zero notice three seasons prior when his predecessor Charlie Whiting died on the eve of the 2019 championship. But though Masi ultimately lost his job by triggering a controversy which brought F1 into disrepute, other troubling incidents also occured on his watch.

Sergio Perez had a near-miss with a pair of marshals at Monaco in 2019. The following year a similar incident occured involving his team mate Lance Stroll and others at Imola. At Istanbul that year a qualifying session began in wet conditions while marshals were still on…