Formula 1 race director Rui Marques gets support: According to FIA president Mohammed bin Sulayem, there should be several people in charge in the 2025 season
Formula 1 will have not just one but “several” race directors in the 2025 season. Mohammed bin Sulayem, president of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), hinted at this on the fringes of the FIA summit in Jarama, Spain, as reported by De Telegraaf, among others.
Bin Sulayem spoke of “fresh blood” for the position of race directors, but did not name any names. This means that it remains unclear whether Rui Marques will continue in his role as the current Formula One race director in the 2025 season.
Marques had been appointed as race director at short notice at the end of 2024 after the FIA and Formula 1 parted ways with his predecessor Niels Wittich. Wittich, in turn, had taken over from Michael Masi in 2022, together with Edoardo Freitas, who had been dismissed after the controversial 2021 Formula 1 finale in Abu Dhabi.
So two race directors taking turns to run the race at the track would not be a novelty in Formula 1. However, this system did not even last a full racing season: from the end of 2022, Freitas was no longer in action after an incident at the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka, and responsibility therefore passed entirely to Wittich.
FIA strives for more professionalism
Before the 2025 season, the world federation is also striving to ensure more professionalism among its motorsport “referees”. Plans for a new FIA department were recently presented, which will be dedicated to the training of officials such as race directors and stewards. In this way, the world governing body wants to create a broader personnel base.
This could mean a change from volunteer to full-time officials: in the future, stewards could work for Formula One full-time or at least part-time – and no longer only sporadically and “on call”.
With these measures, the world governing body is also reacting to the ongoing criticism from the Formula One paddock that the decisions of the race directors and stewards are too inconsistent.
