The
FIA suddenly announced on Tuesday that
Niels Wittich will no longer be
Formula 1 race director. With three race weekends to go in the 2024
Formula 1 season,
Rui Marques will take over. Who is the new race director in
F1?
Who is Rui Marques, the new FIA race director?
Rui Marques, the new race director in Formula 1 from the Las Vegas Grand Prix onwards, already has experience in the same position in other Formula classes. Until recently, he held the position of race director in
Formula 2 and
Formula 3, and now he is making the big move to
F1.
Before his position as race director in F2 and F3, Marques' roles since 2012 included track commissioner, judge, national and international steward, deputy race director and race director in several championships, including the WTCC championship.
Marques takes over from
Niels Wittich, who held the position for a relatively short time. In 2022, Wittich joined Eduardo Freitas to replace Michael Masi. Masi was appointed in early 2019 to replace
Charlie Whiting, who was active as Formula 1's race director for decades. Whiting suddenly died. Masi was replaced following the controversial 2021 Abu Dhabi season finale, where
Max Verstappen secured his first world title at the expense of
Lewis Hamilton.
This article has been created in collaboration with Matt Gretton