After the Brazilian GP earlier this month, the FIA suddenly announced that their F1 race director since 2022, Neils Wittich will be stepping down from his position effective immediately. Rui Marques was immediately announced as his replacement from the Las Vegas GP, and he’s already receiving praise from the drivers.
Rui Marques previously worked as race director for other FIA series’ including Formula 2 and Formula 3. However, the Las Vegas GP is his first weekend as a race director in F1 and he’s already receiving praise. So what did he do to receive praise from the drivers already?
Russell and Sainz happy with new FIA race director
After the Qualifying session of the Vegas GP, both Russell and Sainz expressed how happy they were that they got a race director who listens to them. Here’s what Russell said when asked about his impression of the new race director.
“Positive, to be honest. We’ve been through a little bit of an era where our comments are taken on board, but very little change happens.
“For example, a number of drivers spoke about the track limits at Turn 4. We felt it was a little bit unnecessary on a street circuit and he made a change to it in the moment.
“That is what we want to see as drivers, we all want to be heard and we want to see action taken straightaway – so far it has been positive.”
🚨 | Race director Niels Wittich has left his position with immediate effect.
Rui Marques is set take over from the Las Vegas GP onwards, Marques was previously the race director for both Formula 2 and 3.#F1 #Formula1 pic.twitter.com/WLNmR9mVra
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) November 12, 2024
Given that the Vegas GP takes place on a street circuit, there is not much room for error. Hence, there is minimal need for track limit around the circuit. Russell and the other drivers felt that track limits at turn 4 was unnecessary mainly because the only way to exceed track limits there is if you go into the wall. The race director understood this and took the necessary action.
Similarly, Carlos Sainz had another suggestion for Rui Marques on the Vegas circuit.
“I would say we also asked for some changes on the pit entry to make the line more visible because we literally couldn’t see the pit entry line and we were very worried about that.”
“Today, we turned up to the track and the pit entry line was widened with a blue line, and we were all saying this was really nice because they did a very nice change and with a very good approach and the way we were listened to yesterday was a very positive meeting and I’m very encouraged by that.”
It seems as though the drivers are happy with the race director so far. However, we still haven’t seen Rui Marques in action during a race. We will get to witness that during the Las Vegas GP tomorrow.
Do you think Rui Marques will do well as the FIA Race Director for F1? Post your thoughts in the comments section below.
