From working with Senna to running the Saudi Arabian GP

The man who heads race promoter Saudi Motorsport Company, and who is largely responsible for the success of the event, is Briton Martin Whitaker.

Prior to becoming involved in the circuit and event operation business, Whitaker’s career followed an unusual path that saw him working for bosses as diverse as Bernie Ecclestone, Jean-Marie Balestre, Max Mosley and Ron Dennis.

Along the way, he’s experienced the sport from every possible angle, including that of manufacturer and entrant in F1 and the WRC. His CV is one of the busiest of any top executive in motorsport.

From a family background of fruit farming and winemaking in Gloucestershire, Whitaker got his start as a junior reporter for Motoring News. Journalism wasn’t his thing, however, and in 1985 he switched to become press officer for the RAC MSA, which saw him involved in the British GP, RAC Rally and events such as the London-Brighton run.

He caught the attention of Bernie Ecclestone and after a brief spell working for F1, at his boss’s suggestion, he moved to the FIA, overseeing media matters in the latter stages of the Balestre era. Then, in late 1990, he was recruited as communications boss by McLaren.

“It was amazing working at McLaren in the days when Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger were there,” he recalls. “Gerhard was the practical joker, and they had this really good relationship.

“We were winning everything, and it was a great team. You could learn a lot from somebody like Ron. That was a really exciting period, and really interesting, because it was also the time when they launched the F1 road car, so it was quite fun to be involved in that. And I got to wear the red trousers!”

In 1991, Whitaker returned to the F1 organisation to look after the TV side for Ecclestone, before going back to the FIA for a second stint, this time working with Mosley.

“You can imagine working for Max was an extraordinary experience,” he says. “He was a great person to work for, to be honest.”

He was thus in charge of FIA communications during the turbulent 1994 season, including the Imola weekend that saw the deaths of Senna and Roland Ratzenberger.

In 1995 he was headhunted by Ford Europe: “I started off as the public affairs director for motorsport, and then I took over as director of motorsport. Up until then, my career was pretty much in communications, so this was a bit of a shift.

“I was at Ford throughout that great era of transforming the…