Nov.15 (GMM) Chaos is threatening to break out not only among the Liberty Media-owned Formula 1 organisation, but also at the governing FIA.
Earlier this week, the FIA shocked the F1 world by announcing that race director Niels Wittich is “stepping down” with immediate effect. The German official denied this, suggesting to motorsort-magazin.com that he was sacked.
“I have not resigned,” Wittich said.
With three decisive races still to run in 2024, former F1 driver Christian Danner admitted his astonishment at the news.
“The race director has a huge responsibility,” he said. “Not everyone can cope with such pressure, defending the interests of the sport and safety.
“You have to understand that race directors don’t grow on trees,” the German pundit added. “I think that throwing an impeccable director out on the street without any reason is not only outrageous in itself, but also completely ill-considered.
“Not just anyone can deal with the unbelievable pressure of dealing with Christian Horner, Toto Wolff, Zak Brown. We saw with Eduardo Freitas that he couldn’t cope with it. Now we had a man who was doing a great job and he has been sacked.”
Danner claims Wittich, although criticised by others for some recent decision-making, was actually “completely impartial” as he strictly interpreted the rules as they are written.
“At first I thought it was the GPDA letter than could explain it, but if you read it, it wasn’t about the race director. It was about the president. Maybe he’s too touchy,” Danner said, referring to controversial FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
Indeed, there have been several high-profile departures from the FIA this season – the latest being compliance officer Paolo Basarri, who earlier this year was in charge of investigating allegations against Ben Sulayem.
Several sources believe Basarri, like Wittich, was sacked.
On Wittich’s apparent sacking, Danner continued: “A possible distraction from current problems is not a reason to fire a race director.
“Given the fact that we have no new talent to take over this position, I consider this an unnecessary destabilisation of the entire system and a fatal mistake by the FIA.”
Meanwhile, there is also apparent turmoil within Liberty Media-owned F1, the sport’s commercial rights holder. F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, as well as others like Horner, Wolff and Lawrence Stroll, are implicated in a US government probe into cartel-like behaviour for blocking the FIA-approved Andretti-Cadillac team entry.
According to f1-insider.com, those F1 officials are expected to be interviewed by FBI agents at the Las Vegas GP next weekend, to question their alleged conversations about Andretti within a closed WhatsApp group.
Sources have denied that Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei’s decision to step down is related to the Andretti situation.
“One thing is certain,” correspondent Ralf Bach said. “(US) officials began investigating at the race in Austin in October, but refrained from taking drastic measures on site. Instead, they suggested video interviews.
“But the grace period is said to be over in Las Vegas.”