F1 drivers react to surprise FIA 'sacking'

A number of F1 drivers have admitted surprise over the sudden exit of Niels Wittich from his role as the sport's race director.

Wittich's departure was announced after the Brazilian Grand Prix, with the German insisting he was released from his position rather than opting to step down.

The FIA has promoted Formula 2 and Formula 3 race director Rui Marquez to the position for the remainder of the campaign, with Fernando Alonso revealing the new referee will receive full support from the drivers.

“I was surprised,” Alonso told media including RacingNews365. “I read the news, as you all did. I don't have any other information about it apart from the press release.

“We’ll see tomorrow in the drivers’ briefing, the new race director. We’ll try to be supportive.

“We’ll try to help him as much as we can in anything that he may need. Hopefully we’ll have a long relationship with this new race director and get things better and better for the future.”

Other F1 drivers, including Charles Leclerc and Alex Albon, highlighted the situation could have been handled with more care.

“It was a surprise,” Albon said. “Niels had one of the hardest jobs in the paddock, and I thought he was doing a good job with it. I think he was balancing the whole the whole thing as best as he could.

“To comment on the change, It’s not really my position, I felt like he was more than capable to do the last three races.”

Leclerc added: “That came out a bit of nowhere. I think we were all surprised. 

“The timing was a bit surprising, to do it so late in the season, at such a crucial moment of the season. It could all have probably been managed in a better way.”

Leclerc's team-mate Carlos Sainz also revealed he was blind-sided by the announcement.

“I'm obviously surprised, a bit strange now, with three races to finish in the year, to suddenly change race directors,” he said. “But as I don't know what happened and I don't know what's going on.”

George Russell took issue with not being kept in the loop by the FIA, following the public statement F1 drivers released earlier this month.

“We definitely weren't aware, it was a bit of a surprise,” Russell said. “It’s a hell of a lot of pressure now for the new race director with just three races left. 

“As drivers, we probably feel like we're the last to find out this sort of information, and when it involves us kind of directly, it would be nice to be kept in the loop and just have an understanding of what decisions are being made.”

Oscar Piastri mirrored Russell's comments and acknowledged Wittich likely did not voluntarily step down.

“I had no idea that anything was even being planned,” Piastri said. “I actually heard it from someone else, one of the other drivers, or an article somewhere. So it was definitely a bit of a bit of a surprise. 

“Niels was doing a reasonable job. There were some things that we wanted to improve. Some got better, some maybe didn't, but I certainly don't think it warranted an immediate sacking. I don’t know how it [the statement] was phrased, but it seems like a bit of a different picture than how it was phrased.”

Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll both asserted it will not change their on-track approach - however, the Aston Martin driver suggested penalties could be treated differently going forward.

“I know what I have to do in the car, it doesn’t really change my approach to racing,” Gasly said. 

“There are clear rules on what you can do, what you can't do, and whoever is there is there is going to apply to this rule. So it doesn't really change.”

Stroll added: “I think everyone's surprised about that. It doesn't change my approach on the track - just maybe penalties and all that will be done in different ways now, hopefully for the better.”