[Rules] The FIA - what's occurring there?

[Akrapovic]

MBS, who is not a fan of politics and thinks human rights should not be discussed by people involved in motorsport, has taken to social media to congratulate the new president elect of the United States and states how he looks forward to working with him.

This has not gone unnoticed by others in the industry.

[Greem]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

MBS, who is not a fan of politics and thinks human rights should not be discussed by people involved in motorsport, has taken to social media to congratulate the new president elect of the United States and states how he looks forward to working with him.

This has not gone unnoticed by others in the industry.

I'm waiting for a single national/organisational/profession/community leader to say "There's no way on this planet I can work with you or have any form of productive relationship with you".

I'm going to be waiting a long time.

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

MBS, who is not a fan of politics and thinks human rights should not be discussed by people involved in motorsport, has taken to social media to congratulate the new president elect of the United States and states how he looks forward to working with him.

This has not gone unnoticed by others in the industry.

He's really digging a big hole for himself. I think some of his intentions, like cutting down on swearing, are good, but the way he goes about them isn't helping his case. He needs to be very careful

[flatlandsman]

It depends if you believe that politicians are really all that powerful. They are put there to make you think you have a choice, you have no choice. THe big corporations own land, banks, judges, political parties. So moaning about politicians is largely irrelevant.

The words of George Carlin, a man I would have voted for.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by flatlandsman

It depends if you believe that politicians are really all that powerful. They are put there to make you think you have a choice, you have no choice. THe big corporations own land, banks, judges, political parties. So moaning about politicians is largely irrelevant.

The words of George Carlin, a man I would have voted for.

It doesn't matter what you believe about politicians. It matters that the FIA President tried to ban drivers coming out in favour of basic human rights by limiting "political" speech, and then takes part in political speech himself.

It doesn't matter if you're left wing, right wing, think politicians are good, bad, liars or honest. It matters that there is one rule for him and one rule for everyone else.

[flatlandsman]

I take very little notice of what the man says anyway, but as a driver in this era I can imagine it must be incredibly frustrating. I will suggest a reason though, this man was born into wealth, has probably never really worked a day in his life or suffered any kind of hatred, racism etc. He has lived in a bubble and has now been thrust into a role that he has to be aware of things he probably has no idea about!

Not an excuse please believe me, but it's a bit like Michael Jackson suddenly becoming President.

[GTRMagic]

Perhaps Mr Andretti, not being so busy with race teams to run, might lean on his Republican friends again, or perhaps the biggest Republican of the now in the President-elect and ask for reviews into F1 deep state status quo and beyond..

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Now Niels Wittich quits as Race director for F1.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1...s/c4gvpn1exnvo

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12...ed-replacement

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by ScotsBrutesFan

Now Niels Wittich quits as Race director for F1.

I must admit that I haven't followed the matter of the Race Director since the Masi affair, but I strongly recollect that the intention had been to replace Masi with two RDs who would alternate, but not necessarily one race after the previous one.

Is my memory deceiving me?

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

I must admit that I haven't followed the matter of the Race Director since the Masi affair, but I strongly recollect that the intention had been to replace Masi with two RDs who would alternate, but not necessarily one race after the previous one.

Is my memory deceiving me?

That was the plan. I had to Google the history to refresh my memory.

Masi was replaced by both Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas. However due to issues created by Freitas in 2022 Suzuka race, they dropped Freitas and decided to stop alternating and go with just Wittich.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/i...dent/10387600/
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/t...view/10387605/

It seems to be a continual revolving door of key staff under MBS.

Richard

[ScotsBrutesFan]

I don't think this will be geo-locked but this is Sky sports Craig Slater on the Wittich story, and raises the question of did he jump or was he pushed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1AVYWk3L2Y

[chillibowl]

to leave with 'immediate effect' and with only 3 races left in the season? its either health reasons or to heck with it reasons right? without more reporting, im leaning latter.

no doubt a lot of pressure during the Brazilian GP to keep the race going plus they were probably going to fire him in about a month anyways...not sure what to say other than good luck to the next person in line for the job!

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Richard C

That was the plan. I had to Google the history to refresh my memory.

Masi was replaced by both Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas. However due to issues created by Freitas in 2022 Suzuka race, they dropped Freitas and decided to stop alternating and go with just Wittich.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/i...dent/10387600/
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/t...view/10387605/

It seems to be a continual revolving door of key staff under MBS.

Richard

Thanks, Richard, good to know that I haven't lost all my marbles yet!


MBS does appear to be extremely careless when it comes to losing so many of the individuals within the top echelon of the FIA.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by ScotsBrutesFan

I don't think this will be geo-locked but this is Sky sports Craig Slater on the Wittich story, and raises the question of did he jump or was he pushed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1AVYWk3L2Y

Thanks for the link (able to watch OK in the US). It does sound like he was pushed out.

The flogging will continue until morale improves at the FIA! Give it enough time and one of us here on the forum will be race director or in some other senior position in the FIA!

Richard

[A20 YBP]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

to leave with 'immediate effect' and with only 3 races left in the season? its either health reasons or to heck with it reasons right? without more reporting, im leaning latter.

no doubt a lot of pressure during the Brazilian GP to keep the race going plus they were probably going to fire him in about a month anyways...not sure what to say other than good luck to the next person in line for the job!

Somebody has to replace him and stepping in with just a few races left? That’s got to be insane! They’ll have to hit the ground running, fixing whatever they can, and just trying to keep everything from falling apart.

It’ll be crazy to see who they bring in next, especially with so much on the line

[Lancsbreaker]

The Guardian's report claims the FIA is "surprised" by the departure - not quite the picture pained in the Sky link above.......wonder which is true And sympathies for the new incumbent.... :

"The Formula One race director, Niels Wittich, has stepped down from his post with immediate effect in an unexpected decision announced by the FIA on Tuesday. He will be replaced by Rui Marques, who was previously the race director for Formula Two and Formula Three. Wittich’s departure came as a surprise to F1 and is highly unusual in its timing given there are three races of the 2024 season remaining.
Wittich has made no comment on why he has stepped down during the season, but he is the latest senior FIA officials to leave. In the past 12 months the chief executive, Natalie Robyn, moved on after 18 months in post, as have the sporting director, Steve Nielsen, the technical director, Tim Goss, and the head of the FIA commission for women, Deborah Mayer, in what has been a period of turbulence for the FIA president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem."

[Akrapovic]

https://x.com/MSM_Christian?ref_src=...Ctwgr%5Eauthor

A motorsport journalist has stated that Wittich was fired from his role.

[Tourer]

I've been critical of Wittich (or possibly the system that he has to use) particularly around the use of VCS, then SC, then Red Flag - when there have been a number of times where either SC or Red Flag were needed immediately. There was a bit of that in Brazil but I do wonder about the impact that the FIA "bunker" has on all this and maybe that is why some calls have been slow?

The whole start situation in Brazil was strange too but again, not at all sure that Wittich can be fully blamed for that.

Seems really strange to sack someone (as that appears to be what has happened here) with only the last 3 races to go, so clearly something untenable is the problem - if, as has been suggested by some pundits, there is a personal clash between Wittich and MBS, you'd think they'd at least see out the season.

Old mate from F2/F3 is going to have a pretty full-bore month!

All this of course (to me anyway) is when MBS has been making claims that the FIA doesn't get enough credit or should be better rewarded financially - not sure that the FIA either deserves credit or deserves more financing with this kind of shenanigans going on.

Wonder if we'll hear more about it?

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

https://x.com/MSM_Christian?ref_src=...Ctwgr%5Eauthor

A motorsport journalist has stated that Wittich was fired from his role.

That fits in well with my suggestion elsewhere that it seemed somewhat odd that Wittich would suddenly turn up to work and say I am leaving today to pursue 'other interests.... and that same day the FIA issue a statement announcing Wittich's departure along with his replacement already confirmed.

Suspicious at best.

[Gerard C]

If they're really looking for ways to save money why don't they work from their official headquarters in Paris? And close the Geneva office whose usefulness not proven.

[P38 in workshop]

If my memory is correct,the Geneva HQ was established during the Max Mosley era and was said to have been introduced as there was no extradition treaty between Switzerland and the EU.At the time there were legal actions in progress that related to the Death of Ayrton Senna at Imola.

[Richard C]

I found this article mentioned elsewhere, but it had some interesting speculation as to what drove this.

https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/...swurf-gruende/

Translations from the German article below via Google...

Looks like he was pushed out...

The 52-year-old from Hesse was apparently on his way to an FIA meeting in Geneva when he was informed that he had lost his job.

Potentially not popular with the drivers, but also used by MBS as a scapegoat for criticism by GPDA against the FIA...

The most likely reason for Wittich's dismissal is disagreements with the drivers during the driver briefings. The tall FIA official was very meticulous about issues such as jewelry and fireproof underwear and did not allow any discussions. His predecessors were much more approachable in this regard. Behind closed doors, some drivers accused Wittich of being pedantic. They felt they were being treated like little children.

This very behavior was recently criticized by the drivers' union (GPDA) in an open letter. However, the accusations were directed less at the race director and more directly at FIA President Mohammed bin Sulayem. It is quite possible that the boss of the world association has now found an easy pawn in Wittich to appease the drivers and take himself out of the firing line.

Richard

[Akrapovic]

If the MBS thinks the drivers are stupid enough to not see through that then he's even more of a fool than he appeared to be. And that was substantial already.

[Skam85]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

If the MBS thinks the drivers are stupid enough to not see through that then he's even more of a fool than he appeared to be. And that was substantial already.

He's like a Temu version of Balestre. Trying to be this hard ass dictator, without even 10% of the intelligence of his pre-pre-predecessor. But on the other side of the coin he is also trying to be this hip relatable "I was a driver too ya know" guy.

He is as good at reading a room as Stroll is hitting an apex.

[flatlandsman]

Presuming Balestre had intelligence suggest you might need an idea of what constitutes intelligence!! The man was a knee jerk idiot most of his tenure