F1 drivers “surprised” by “weird” departure of race director Wittich

World champion Max Verstappen thinks it is “weird” that the FIA elected to axe Formula 1 race director Niels Wittich before the end of the season.

The FIA dropped a bombshell after the Brazilian Grand Prix when it announced that Wittich would not be remaining in his position, and instead would be replaced from the Las Vegas round by Rui Marques.

Although there was no official explanation about why Wittich left, high-level sources have suggested that he was sacked amid a falling out with FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

At a time when the drivers and Ben Sulayem are not seeing eye-to-eye on a number of matters, the sudden switch of race directors has caused further unease.

Asked what his reaction was when he saw the news, Verstappen said: “I read the news and I just continued with my day... of course it is a bit weird with three races to go to do that. It doesn’t matter if you are positive or negative about certain things, and I thought in Brazil, for example, there was definitely room for improvement, but it is still weird now having to deal with a different race director.

“Normally if you want to change a race director then do it after the season, and then you have a bit of time for the race director himself to get up to speed with things.

“Then you have pre-season testing, and you get into your role a bit more. But let’s see how it goes. They have decided it, and we have to deal with it.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, talks to the media

Photo by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Images

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc revealed that drivers had had zero warning about the change happening – as he too said it wasn't ideal happening right now.

“Yeah, that came out a bit of nowhere,” he commented. “I think we were all surprised.

“More than speaking about the decision, which we can all have our own opinion [about], I think the timing was a bit surprising, and to do it so late in the season at such a crucial moment. It could have probably been managed in a better way.

“Apart from that, it doesn't fundamentally change our relationship with the FIA. It's obviously a continuous process of trying to make that relationship and that discussion better in order to make our sport better.

“There are things to improve, for sure, and we are trying to work with the FIA to make it better. But yeah, quite surprised with the timing of that.”

While the details surrounding why Wittich fell out of favour are not known, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri suggested there was no grounds for thinking he had done anything that justified being dropped.

“I had no idea that anything was even being planned,” said the Australian. “I actually heard it from someone else, one of the other drivers, or an article somewhere. So it was definitely a bit of a surprise.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren F1 Team

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“I think on the whole, Niels was doing a reasonable job. I think there were some things that we wanted to improve, some things got better, some maybe didn't, but, yeah, I certainly don't think it warranted an immediate sacking. I don't know how it got phrased, but it seems like a bit of a different picture than how it was phrased, so I don't know.

“We'll see what the new race director is like. I've not had any experience with him before.”

Carlos Sainz said that a good relationship between drivers and race director was very important, as he hoped things would get off to a good start with Marques.

“I think it's extremely important, that co-operation and that collaboration between racing drivers and race director,” he said. “A lot of decisions that the race director takes are influenced by the feedback that we give about the track, the conditions and everything.

“I’m kindly asking from here just to the new one to be open-minded, to listen to us, to appreciate our feedback because if we say things with an intention of changing the track or we communicate something in the radio it is because we truly believe that.

“So we are just asking for cooperation, collaboration, and an open relationship - then everything should be smooth.

“I’m wishing the best because it's a tough job and he's been given a very tough task, which is to come into a championship with only three races left.”

Additional reporting by Ronald Vording and Filip Cleeren