Formula 1 racing director Rui Marques faces increased responsibilities on the Qatar Grand Prix as he must take charge of F2 following his latest shock departure from the FIA, Motorsport.com has learned.
Just per week after former F2/F3 racing director Marques took over in F1 from Niels Wittich, who was himself sacked by FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem after the Brazilian GP, there was further upheaval.
Janette Tan, who succeeded Marques and was expected to make her first F2 race in Qatar, was unexpectedly sacked just days before the Losail event.
She gained experience as Marques' deputy and was initially expected to drive the ultimate two rounds of F2 in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, before likely taking over the role in 2025.
However, that won't be the case now as she is believed to be the most recent FIA victim of FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, although the explanations for her departure haven’t been made public.
Tan's departure means Marques now faces a tougher-than-usual weekend schedule at Losail as he has also been called as much as F2 – which falls on an F1 sprint weekend that already has a more intense schedule than usual.
The added demands of the Qatar weekend also come because the third weekend of a brutal four-race race, during which he served as race director for the Macau Grand Prix the weekend before heading to Las Vegas.
While the extra responsibilities in F2 seem heavy, the demands placed on a race director have not less than recently been reduced with higher support structures in race control.
Marques can have 4 staff on site, in addition to technical and IT teams to assist with issues corresponding to track restriction detection and stewarding issues.
The FIA has also been working extensively to enhance the operations of its Remote Operations Centre, where an extra 4 to 6 people assist live during an F1 race weekend.
Mohammed Ben Sulayem, President of the FIA
Photo: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
It just isn’t unusual for an F1 race director to play an lively or advisory role in support races during Grand Prix weekends.
Tan just isn’t the one senior person to go away in recent days. It turned out that long-time FIA race steward Tim Mayer had also passed away.
Mayer, son of McLaren founder Teddy Mayer, has served with the FIA for the past 15 years and can be an FIA delegate to the United States.
While no official statement has been made regarding his departure, it is known that there could also be tensions with Ben Sulayem over the circumstances surrounding the track invasion on the United States Grand Prix.
The departure of Tan and Mayer comes against the backdrop of high staff turnover inside the FIA, even before Wittich's departure earlier this month.
In October, the FIA parted ways with its communications director Luke Skipper and mobility secretary general Jacob Bangsgaard.
Late last yr, sporting director Steve Nielsen and single-seater technical director Tim Goss resigned, while the pinnacle of the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission, Deborah Mayer, also left.
The FIA's first director general, Natalie Robyn, also left the organization in May after lower than two years within the role.
In this text
Jonathan Noble
Formula 1
FIA F2
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