George Russell says F1 drivers want to know ‘who’s getting fired next’ as key staff leave FIA

LUSAIL, Qatar (AP) — George Russell says Formula 1 drivers have a simple question for the sport’s governing body: which official will be “getting fired” next?

Russell is a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, which represents the F1 drivers, and his comments continue a split between the drivers and the FIA over the rapid turnover of staff and other issues, like a push to punish drivers for swearing.

“Naturally in any organization if you’ve got people leaving or a change of personnel, it’s never going to be a stable environment and people have to learn the new rules,” Russell said Thursday. “That’s very challenging for any team and it must be super challenging for everyone within the FIA right now. So we’d love to get a little bit of clarity and understanding of what’s going on and who’s getting fired next.”

Russell’s comments followed a report by the BBC that two more officials — race steward Tim Mayer and the deputy race director for Formula 2, Janette Tan — had left suddenly. Tan’s departure means newly appointed F1 race director Rui Marques will also have to oversee the two scheduled F2 races this weekend in Qatar, the BBC said. Other senior FIA officials left various roles at the organization earlier this year.

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Marques was only promoted this month to F1 race director from the F2 role as the FIA replaced his predecessor Niels Wittich this month in an unexpected move with three races remaining of the season.

“Just when we’ve asked for a bit of transparency and consistency we’re getting rid of two highly important people in the governing body, so it’s kind of gone in a full 360,” Russell said. “We still don’t have any reasoning for Niels’ removal.”

Marques’ performance at last week’s Las Vegas Grand Prix was broadly praised by the drivers.

“I think it’s very, very difficult to judge whether that is too much or not,” Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc said when asked Thursday about Marques’ workload. “I guess he will be the first one to experience it. But the first race has gone really well, and he’s been super open-minded in listening to us drivers and doing things in the right way, and that was very positive.”

Earlier this month, the GPDA published a statement urging the FIA to treat drivers like adults and asking FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem to consider “his own tone and language”, following efforts during his tenure to enforce rules against swearing and jewelry more strictly.

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