F1 chief legal officer Woodward Hill to leave

Formula 1's long-serving chief legal officer Sacha Woodward Hill is leaving the organisation.

Still a practising solicitor, she was originally recruited to join F1 back in 1996 by former supremo Bernie Ecclestone, having previously worked for several well-known legal firms in London.

Reflecting several years ago on how she made the step into grand prix racing, she told F1: "As with most things in F1, it all happened very fast and he offered me a job the next day.

"He never confirmed the offer in writing – things were a little informal in those days – and when I arrived on my first day, he pretended to not remember hiring me, as a joke.

"I quickly discovered his dry sense of humour, one of the many qualities that made him a great person to work for."

Woodward Hill was formally appointed to the chief legal officer role in 2000, and has remained in that post until now. In 2006 she joined the board of directors as a member of F1's executive management.

She is very well known in F1 circles and helped play an important role during the global transformation of F1 under Ecclestone in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Under her, F1's legal team expanded to cover the many demands of a modern sporting organisation, and this group of highly-skilled lawyers helped support grand prix racing's chiefs in dealing with legal advice, the negotiations of deals and other risks management exercises.

Bernie Ecclestone with Sacha Woodward-Hill Monaco, Saturday 28 May 2011.

She became a close confidante of Ecclestone, holding directorships in several F1 related businesses, and was even at one time suggested by him to be a potential successor.

Speaking back in 2014 about the prospect of someone like Woodward Hill taking over the running of F1, Ecclestone said: "The people here (at FOM) would be able to easily follow through what we have put in place.

"Perhaps if I controlled the board, I would probably say it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a woman being the chief executive.

"If I died there are enough people in the company who could continue running it the way we have set things up."

While some of Ecclestone's closest allies departed when F1 was sold to Liberty Media in 2016, Woodward Hill stayed on and worked alongside current F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali during what has been a hugely successful period.

Her responsibilities including overseeing F1's legal compliance, brand protection, human resources and administrative functions.

It is understood however, that after nearly 30 years with F1, she has decided that now is the right time to step away from day-to-day responsibilities and will be departing.