F1 drivers felt positive with new FIA Race Director Rui Marques after first drivers’ briefing led to immediate changes at Las Vegas GP as per their request.
The FIA surprised everyone after announcing change of F1 Race Director from Las Vegas GP onward, replacing Niels Wittich with Marques. The former had joined the championship alongside Eduardo Freitas and shared the role from 2022 onward until he went solo.
There was no major trouble during his stint but his end certainly surprised everyone – including the F1 drivers – with only three races remaining in the 2024 season. The German media reported that Wittich was removed from the position as opposed to a mutual step.
Marques, meanwhile, started his role in Las Vegas GP and had his first drivers’ briefing on Friday when he met the drivers for the first time as well. And his impression was a positive one for the F1 drivers too with the conversations they had.
He made a couple of changes as per their request, whether it was changing the pit entry line to blue for better view or repositioning the white line at Turn 4 – it was heard and changed for the rest of the weekend from Saturday onward.
The start of the association has been dubbed as positive by few F1 drivers and they expect it to grow in the future going into the 2025 season. They feel that Marques was forthcoming in his approach and wanted to understand the drivers’ requests.
Here’s what was said –
George Russell: “I’d say positive, to be honest. I think we’ve been through a little bit of an era where our comments are taken on board, but very little change happens. For example, a number of drivers spoke about the track limits of the exit of Turn 4. We felt it was a little bit unnecessary on a street circuit. He made a change to it in the moment, and I think that’s what we want to see as drivers we want to be we heard we want to be heard and we want to see action taken straight away. So I mean, so far it’s been positive.”
Carlos Sainz: “Yeah he’s been given a massive task to come into a season with three race left and Race Director, I think it’s such a complicated role in Formula 1, which you have so many variables to control that I think he’s been given a very difficult task, but honestly, the first weekend straight from the go, I think he’s been really good. I think the Driver’s Briefing yesterday was one of the best we’ve had in a long time. George commented on the Turn 3 exit.
“I will say we also asked for some changes on the pit entry to make the line more visible because we literally couldn’t see the pit entry line, so we were very worried about that and today we turn up to the track and the pit entry line was widened, was put a blue line and we were all saying this was really nice because they did a very nice change and with a very good approach. and the way we were listening yesterday was honestly also a very positive meeting and I’m encouraged by that.”
Pierre Gasly: “Yeah, I think it’s been a great start and great to see good communication. So far, very positive.”
Sergio Perez: “I think he is doing a good job, he is listening to us, so lets see how things progress. So far, so good.”
Nico Hulkenberg: “It was fine. It was good, neutral.”
Kevin Magnussen: “Good, I mean, he seemed keen to ask questions and be forthcoming of our ideas and opinions, so good feeling.”
Esteban Ocon: “Yeah, good conversations, Rui really wants to work with us and he made some really good changes on the track, like painting the line in two different colours which is very clear to us. He has moved the white line at Turn 4, which were the two things we asked as drivers and yeah, [we were] surprised in a good way that this was done.”
Here’s what was said after Saturday in F1 Las Vegas GP
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