F1 News: FIA President Believes Having One Race Director Is "Unreliable"

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has confirmed that there will now always be more than one race director, following the controversial 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix which led to then-race-director Michael Masi stepping down from the role.

The 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will go down as one of the most controversial moments in the sport. Masi received a lot of backlash for his decision to only let the cars in between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen in the latter stages of the championship-deciding race. If all lapped cars had been told to un-lap themselves, which is what would usually happen, then the race would have ended under the safety car conditions and so Hamilton would have won.

However, with only the selected few lapped cars able to un-lap themselves the safety car was able to end before the race came to a close and Verstappen, on newer tyres, overtook Hamilton to take his first championship win.

Once Masi had stepped down from the role, the FIA brought in two race-directors instead of one with Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas. It was then put back to just one with Wittich, after looking into why a crane was allowed on the track at the Japanese Grand Prix when the driver's were still out.

Mercedes driver, George Russell, spoke as one of the directors of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, explaining that they:

“Believe that having the rotation isn't the best thing for a sport, for that consistency.

“We've never had a steward from a previous event at the following race to talk about any certain decisions, I believe.”

Despite this, Sulayem has confirmed during a media briefing at the 2023 Dakar Rally, that F1 will continue with more than one race director. He explained:

“There is a process now and I have a team who is going through a proper process and training for stewarding, and for race directors.

“You cannot just have one race director and rely on them. I see that we should prepare the second role. We cannot rely in the biggest discipline that we have, or any other discipline.

“What if something happened? If we are going to sustain motorsport, we have to be ready with training.”

The press is awaiting confirmation of who the second race director will be for 2023 as it is reported that Neils Wittich will continue in the role.