Niels Wittich, who has done the job for the first five races of the 2022 season, will move into the deputy’s seat for the Barcelona race.
Freitas will then stay in the main role for the following weekend’s race in Monaco, before switching his focus to the Le Mans 24 Hours, which clashes with the next F1 event in Azerbaijan.
After the ousting of Michael Masi the FIA decided that Freitas and Wittich should alternate in the race director and deputy director jobs, with an informal plan for them to do two races on, and two races off.
However, the schedule is compromised by Freitas’s longstanding commitment to the WEC. He missed the opening grand prix of the season in Bahrain and also last weekend’s event in Miami.
On both occasions, FIA veteran Colin Haywood served as deputy to Wittich.
The FIA has been keen to position Wittich and Freitas as in effect being interchangeable and working as a team, and that it doesn’t matter which of them has the main job on a given weekend.
Wittich has clearly stamped his personality on the role in the opening races, adopting a non-nonsense and inflexible approach.
Niels Wittich, Race Director, FIA
Photo by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Images
His message that rules are black and white and are there to be followed has generally been appreciated by the teams, who know where they stand.
“From my point of view the new set-up with Niels and also Eduardo had a very good start going into this new era of F1,” McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl noted in Miami.
“Niels is quite straightforward in terms of making sure that the rules get enforced. He’s also quite straightforward in terms of getting across what he’s expecting. And that’s what I personally like.
“And at the same time, he is always available for a dialogue and for constructive input as well, if you think things need to be reconsidered. And from this point of view, when I look now how these first races went, I think we are in a good place.”
However there have…
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