The sudden departure of Formula 1’s race director Niels Wittich has caught the entire paddock by surprise and is leaving the beleaguered governing body with more questions than answers, some more uncomfortable than others.

Was Wittich pushed or did he jump?

The FIA announced on Tuesday Wittich was “stepping down” after less than three seasons as F1’s race director, two of which by himself after initially splitting duties with FIA WEC race director Eduardo Freitas. And while thanking the 52-year-old German for his services, the phrase that Wittich left to “pursue other interests” is the oldest trick in the book to suggest someone has been dismissed rather than stepped back voluntarily. And indeed it soon emerged that the decision did not come from Wittich, who appeared to confirm to the German outlet Motorsport Magazin that he was only told hours before the FIA statement that his services were no longer required.

Funnily enough, Wittich is not even the first FIA race director to be said to “pursue other interests”, with Roger Lane-Nott’s departure in 1996 described in the same terms. After a tough single season as F1’s race director, former submarine commander Lane-Nott was replaced by FIA president Max Mosley by the much missed Charlie Whiting.

Why did Wittich go now?

The most puzzling aspect of Wittich’s replacement by F2 and F3 director Rui Marques is the timing, with three races left to run in the 2024 campaign and one week before F1 travels to Las Vegas. While there had been rumours about FIA president Mohamed Ben Sulayem looking at making a change, the shock timing of the announcement has appeared to taken many people in the paddock by surprise, not least people within the FIA itself.

Race control had caught flack at the Brazilian Grand Prix, with Red Bull unhappy with the timing of a red flag in qualifying that it felt cost Max Verstappen, and with questions raised over the late virtual safety car call in the sprint race for a stricken Nico Hulkenberg. But generally Wittich has been well regarded and uncontroversial, and acknowledged by many as doing a very difficult job relatively well under challenging circumstances, returning some stability to the role after Michael Masi’s fraught spell at the helm.

There has also been unease over the consistency of judging incidents and handing out penalties, but it must be pointed out that this does not fall under race control, which can only refer incidents to the stewards for them to evaluate further.

Niels Wittich, FIA

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Wittich’s replacement will now be dropped into the hotseat ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which is operationally one of the most challenging circuits to manage. It is far from an ideal scenario for someone new to the role, with controlling an F1 race a big step up from other FIA series.

The race around the famed Las Vegas Strip eventually made a successful debut last year, but not before several teething issues in practice, the most spectacular being Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz suffering a heavy crash after dislodging a water valve cover at full speed.

The iconic boulevard itself is also re-opened to the public before and after the on-track action, adding to the complexity of the event.

Who is Wittich’s replacement?

Wittich’s replacement Rui Marques is another well regarded figure within the FIA, who joined the governing body in 2014. Following a spell as the deputy race director in the FIA’s World Touring Car Cup, the Portuguese moved across to single-seaters and became the race director for F2 and F3 in 2022. Marques also has previous experience as an international steward and circuit inspector, giving him a solid all-round perspective of all the moving parts involved in FIA sanctioned racing. In F2 and F3 Marques will be replaced until the end of the year by his Singaporean deputy Jannette Tan.

What does this say about the FIA?

Whatever the ulterior motives behind Wittich’s removal, his shock exit comes off the back of a string of high-profile departures from the governing body under president Ben Sulayem, whose heavy-handed approach has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

In October the FIA parted ways with its director of communications Luke Skipper and secretary general of mobility Jacob Bangsgaard. Late last year both sporting director Steve Nielsen and single-seater technical director Tim Goss resigned, while head of the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission Deborah Mayer also left. The FIA’s first CEO Natalie Robyn also quit the organisation in May after less than two years in the role.

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem

Photo by: Dom Romney / Motorsport Images

Following the latest departures in October, the FIA was keen to announce the appointment of Alberto Villarreal as general manager and new Senior HR Director Alessandra Malhame.

Ben Sulayem has also alienated F1’s driver corps through clampdowns on the use of jewellery and swearing, the latter netting Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc punishments in recent races. Last week the drivers union GPDA called on Ben Sulayem to treat drivers as adults and reconsider his approach.

In an interview with Motorsport.com in September, Ben Sulayem acknowledged that it was hard for the FIA to find qualified race directors, announcing a new department to train officials from grassroots level.

“We have an issue and the issue is that we don’t have [enough] race directors. You cannot order them on Amazon or Google. No, you have to train them,” he said. “If we take what we are doing today in Formula 1, you cannot rely on one. God forbid something happens to him. So, we have to be able to meet the level of demand and have a pathway that’s good.

“We have departments for many things, but we [didn’t] have a department for one thing which is like a spinal cord for us, which is the stewarding and race direction. So, now we have a proper department.”

The latest high-profile departure, in a department which Ben Sulayem has admitted is a pinch point for the organisation, will not ease calls from F1 teams clamouring for more stability. Therefore the FIA, which has been tight-lipped about it all, will have some explaining to do.

Without fail, every driver and every team in any motorsport category you could care to mention will tell you every year that consistency is their number one target. Yes, there will also be the usual spiel about title aspirations, but all know that bagging points at every round is crucial to having any hope of challenging for that top spot.

It is, however, beyond rare for a driver to take it to the extreme that Leonardo Fornaroli did in Formula 3 this term. The Trident driver clinched the title with an overtake on the last corner of the last lap at Monza, to score his seventh podium of the season, before a post-race stewards decision gave him a more comfortable margin in the final standings.

Fornaroli ascended to the third step of the podium on five occasions in 2024 and twice – including at the Monza finale – reached the second step. But remarkably, and in a first for F3, he did not climb to the top step once.

Enter the consistency tag, which is how Fornaroli toppled a field that produced 12 different winners in 20 races. Zero retirements and only two failures to score points meant he added to his tally on more occasions than any driver. The next closest to this record was Campos driver Oliver Goethe, who missed the final weekend after stepping in to replace Williams-bound Franco Colapinto in F2, with five (including Monza) nil points returns.

Having been asked when a race win would come his way with growing frequency as the season progressed, Fornaroli grins when telling Motorsport.com: “Now that I’ve won the championship, I don’t care if I didn’t win any races. But it would have been even better with one or two wins.

“Actually, there were some chances but we were very unlucky. The first one was in Melbourne because one set of tyres in qualifying wasn’t working well and was vibrating quite a lot, so we had to take another set and started the feature race on used tyres compared to the others. Maybe with new tyres, we could have taken the win.

Fornaroli was never on the top step, but took home the ultimate prize at the end of the season

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

“Also, in Imola there was a very good chance to take the win, but we all know what happened there; the car shut down on the straight because of a bump and we lost a lot of time. But we still finished P3.

“The last one was Monza. I think without the thing that happened in Ascari [when he made a mistake and ran though the gravel, dropping positions], there was also a good chance to take the win. But anyway, we took the most important win so right now, I don’t care.”

Arriving in Monza for the season-ending weekend, any one of six drivers could have taken the title. But Fornaroli, Gabriele Mini (Prema) and Luke Browning (Hitech), split by just six points pre-weekend, were the only contenders who had more than simply a mathematical hope of attaining glory.

“We took the most important win so right now, I don’t care” 
Leonardo Fornaroli 

This threw up a peculiar stat from modern era F3 seasons gone by, with no championship-winning driver having ever claimed a race victory at the season-ending weekend. This record extends through to the GP3 era, which pre-dated the formation of current F3 in 2019, all the way back to 2013 when champion Daniil Kvyat topped the podium in race one in Abu Dhabi.

Fornaroli’s hopes of ending that run appeared bright after qualifying, where he secured pole for the feature race. That meant he would start 12th for the earlier sprint outing on the partially reversed grid, but he was among a raft of drivers penalised for driving unnecessarily slowly in qualifying and shuffled back to 16th. 

What followed was a champion’s drive, as he recovered to eighth with the fastest lap. Having started two places ahead, Mini was only ninth. Browning took sixth, but would only start 13th for the feature race and spun out early, setting up an all-Italian duel for the crown.

However things appeared to be slipping away from Fornaroli, who was struggling with tyre wear and heavy flat spots in his bid to recover from the off at Ascari. This all set up a thrilling final lap to the year, the 19-year-old recalls: “Before the last lap, I asked my engineer if I was still P1 in the standings with P4, and they said ‘no, right now you are one point behind Gabriele, so you absolutely have to overtake Chris (Mansell) in front of you’.

Fornaroli battled Alex Dunne for the lead in the early stages of the Monza finale before dropping back and having to fight back to third – which became second with Mini’s disqualification

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

“It was like a cold shower because from a very good position, I was going to lose the championship in a very bad way. So I said ‘OK, I’ll have to invent something’.

“They started to fight a bit in T1, so I recovered a bit of the gap that I’d lost in the penultimate lap. I tried the first move in the second chicane, but my front tyres were completely destroyed. I locked up, we both cut the chicane, and I gave back the position.

“The main focus was to have a very good exit from Lesmo 2 and I had a good exit. But, in the Ascari chicane, I knew it was the last chance because at the last corner, it is very difficult to overtake.

“He defended very well, so I couldn’t get it. And then, going into the last corner, I said: ‘I cannot lose it, I’m losing the championship, it cannot be real’. A lot of things went through my mind – the image of me losing the championship.

“So I said, ‘OK, I have to do something’. I prayed that they were not going to cover the inside but luckily, they went back onto the ideal line before the braking point. I knew it was the last chance, all or nothing.

“I send it on the inside. Luckily, Chris saw me, so he left the space. He was very fair and correct, and we managed to take back the title and the podium on the last corner of the last lap. When I crossed the finish line, all of the pressures that I had went down and I was the happiest man in the world.”

That it was ultimately not necessary, as Mini was disqualified for running tyre pressures below the minimum prescribed limits, and Fornaroli was boosted to second behind winner Sami Meguetounif, was moot. Asked how loud his release of emotion was on the team radio, Fornaroli adds: “I thought I was going to have a heart attack!

“We were all screaming so loudly and when I got out of the car, we were all jumping together. I was like, ‘I’m going to die!’ but it was a special moment for all of us. Also, Trident had back-to-back drivers’ champions, so it was amazing. I think also from outside, it was amazing to watch. I think it was the best race of the season.”

Fornaroli thought he was “going to have a heart attack” when celebrating his triumph

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

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An inspirational figure in Fornaroli’s rise has been the outgoing F3 champion, current F2 points leader and 2025 Sauber F1 driver, Gabriel Bortoleto. The Brazilian won the 2023 F3 crown with Trident, just like Fornaroli, and his Invicta F2 seat will be filled by Fornaroli when he graduates at the end of the campaign.

“The target was to be consistently in the points because, watching his season last year, he won the first two races and then just finished in the points at almost every race and won the title with a lot of gap [45 points] compared to second,” explains Fornaroli. “The goal was to always stay there without over-pushing or doing stupid mistakes or crashing into other drivers in the race.”

He adds: “We are very good friends. I’m very happy when he does well and he’s very happy when I’m doing well. I took him as an inspiration this year to achieve this result and he spoke very well about Invicta to me this season, so we worked a lot to try and join them and eventually, we did it. Now, I will try to do like him next year because he is doing an amazing season.”

“I thought I was going to have a heart attack. We were all screaming so loudly and when I got out of the car, we were all jumping together. I was like, ‘I’m going to die’”
Leonardo Fornaroli

Unlike many of his peers in the junior categories, Fornaroli is not yet linked to an F1 young driver scheme, although his champion status has led to early discussions beginning with more than one team.

Looking ahead to his rookie F2 season, Fornaroli hopes to deliver more of the same consistency that paid off so well in F3 and has taken confidence from the performances of peers who made an early graduation before F2’s autumn hiatus in Baku.

“For me, consistency is the most important part if you want to achieve good results in terms of drivers’ standings,” he assesses. “Watching this year’s results, I will try to arrive there and be competitive from the start. But we will see.

“Also, watching what the other F3 drivers – Chris, Luke and Gabriele – what they did in Baku, they were very quick from the start. So now I have more motivation going into next year.”

Fornaroli will drive for the mighty successful Invicta Racing in F2 next term

Photo by: Invicta Virtuosi Racing

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Marc Marquez has revealed he was questioning if his “time was over” in MotoGP towards the end of his stint at Honda as he grappled with injuries and an uncompetitive bike.

After winning six premier class titles during his first seven seasons in the premier class with Honda, Marquez was forced to accept a new reality when an arm injury sustained in the 2020 Jerez race altered his career.

Requiring a total of four operations over multiple years, Marquez was sidelined from racing for prolonged periods, just as rival Ducati was establishing itself as the new force in MotoGP.

By the time the Spaniard had regained full fitness, Honda’s RC213V had slumped to become the worst bike in MotoGP, leaving victories and podiums largely out of reach.

Marquez was still able to outperform all his Honda stablemates and even scored a third-place finish at Motegi last year, but with the writing on the wall he took the decision to leave the Japanese marque in favour of a satellite deal with Gresini.

The gamble paid off handsomely as he not only regained his race-winning form this year, but also managed to strike a deal with Ducati to join its factory team from 2025.

Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing

Photo by: Dorna

Recalling the time he spent at Honda, Marquez admitted that things got so tough for him that he thought his MotoGP career was over. 

“Two years ago, one year ago, many people – even me – [had doubts]. I had some question marks if my time was over,” he told MotoGP’s YouTube channel.

“It was not like [in the end] this because I took the decision [to join Gresini] because when I will retire some day I don’t want to have any regrets to myself that you don’t try this, you don’t try this way. 

“I will try everything that I have in my hands to feel competitive and to win titles and to fight for titles every year.”

Despite riding last year’s Ducati GP23 bike, albeit with some upgrades, Marquez has clinched three grand prix victories in 2024 and is currently fighting with factory rider Enea Bastianini for third in the championship.

The 31-year-old said he would have been announcing his retirement from MotoGP at this stage had his Gresini move not been successful.

Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“For me already the move that I did last year has been a success because if not, this year I will announce my retirement,” he said. “One year ago I had a lot of question marks in my mind, I had many gaps [doubts]. 

“Then after one year all of these gaps disappeared and I came back to a competitive level. We will not say like the level from 2019, we will say in a competitive level that is enough to continue working, to continue pushing, and especially to have that special spirit of MotoGP. 

“And we taste again that victory, that podium, and that special intensity when you are fighting at the top is different.”

Marquez’s triumph in September’s Aragon Grand Prix ended a 1000-day victory drought stretching back to his trio of successes in 2021 with Honda.

While he previously downplayed the importance of returning to winning ways in 2024, stressing that his main goal was to prepare for his move next year, he admitted that claiming victories this season was key in helping to overcome his doubts that surrounded him at Honda.

“Victories give you a lot of confidence,” he said. “After three-four years, struggling a lot after four surgeries in the arm, and after not getting any good results, you start to lose confidence, you start to have some question marks – Is it the bike? Is it me? Is it my physical condition? 

“Step by step you need to answer that question and reveal [recoup] that confidence with some podiums, races, pole positions, sprint victory and – then main race victory was super important.”

Been there, done that. Ray Mallock had won the Formula Atlantic championship in Britain in 1979 when the category was reintroduced to the country after a two-year hiatus. He’d then competed in the Aurora British Formula 1 Championship in 1980 at the wheel of Surtees – before a huge shunt at Thruxton caused by a car failure – and Wolf machinery. But for 1981, there was good reason to return to Atlantic to attempt to win a second crown. 

“There was this thing that Bernie Ecclestone [then the owner of the Brabham F1 team and head of the FOCA teams group] was supporting,” recalls Mallock. “The prize for that was an F1 test drive…”

At the wheel of the Ralt RT4, the new ground-effect version of the all-conquering Formula 3 RT3, Mallock dominated the championship against variable opposition. Little wonder, because he’d already proved himself on the international stage – including a giantkilling second place in the 1977 Silverstone round of the European Formula 2 Championship behind Rene Arnoux.

“I won the championship and called Bernie at the end of the year,” continues Mallock, “and he said, ‘Yeah, we’ve got quite a few tests coming up, and we’ll get you in the car’. I said, ‘Well, next week I’m due to go off to do the Asia-Pacific championship – three rounds in Australia, Macau and Malaysia – but I can come back in between and test. And Bernie said, ‘No, you don’t need to come back, just get your races out of the way and give me a call as soon as you’re back.’”

As the British champion, Mallock had been invited out to those flyaway races. He claimed a brake-troubled seventh in the Australian GP at Calder, in which Alan Jones drove his last single-seater race before his first retirement from the cockpit but exited late on when his engine lost power. Jacques Laffite also took part, naturally with a Gitanes-liveried RT4. 

Mallock then went on to claim third in a highly attritional Macau GP, keeping things consistent but struggling for pace against those on quicker tyres. And the adventure finished with retirement from the Selangor GP with a blown engine. It was all a far cry from cruising to victory by 20 seconds at Mallory Park. After he got home, he got back on the blower to Bernie…

Mallock believed he would get his maiden F1 test shot after returning from the Asia-Pacific championship, but it never happened

Photo by: Jeff Bloxham

Mallock recalls: “And the answer was, ‘Oh, it’s a shame, there was a test at Paul Ricard last week which would have been perfect. Give me a call in a couple of weeks and this will work out.’ So I did that, and there was nothing then going on. By the time it got to Christmas, I called Bernie and he said, ‘Well, you made your decision that you wanted to go and do your Formula Atlantic races, so you’ve lost your chance to do your F1 test drive.’

“In actual fact it probably did me a favour, because that timescale coincided with the coming of Group C, and Aston Martin announced that they were coming in with the Nimrod. I knew a lot of people still at Astons, so I was able to get myself involved with the Nimrod programme.

“I was always too tall for F1. I was driving pretty well I think, by my reckoning, I had that driving ambition to be in F1, but Group C ended up being a great path for me. I loved Le Mans, I loved those cars, and it really opened up the opportunity for RML.”

“Thank heavens we didn’t get drawn into it, because it would have not ended well I don’t think. It was a real interest, and it could have happened if the cost cap had come about”
Ray Mallock

Mallock’s RML company went – and continues to go – from strength to strength, winning a world Group C2 title and multiple touring car crowns. 

One of the manufacturers with which RML enjoyed huge success in tin-tops was Chevrolet, with which it claimed World Touring Car Championship crowns with Yvan Muller and Rob Huff, and it is this marque that could have taken Mallock into F1 as a team owner in 2010 under the projected new cost-cap rules, three decades after his Brabham run fell through. FIA president Max Mosley was pushing the cost cap proposal, and he was a former customer of Mallock’s father Arthur in his own racing days. 

“That came about because of one of my many discussions with Nick Reilly [Chevrolet Europe boss] about Chevrolet in motorsport,” recalls Mallock. “When Max announced this idea of the price cap, within reach of Chevrolet, I talked to Nick about it and he said, ‘Well yeah, that sounds interesting if we can find a way of entering at that level, without having to spend 200 million or whatever, and it can be an objectively managed process, let’s throw our hat in the ring.’

“So that’s what I did. But quite quickly the goalposts moved – there was no way it was ever going to stay at £40m. It quickly fizzled out and thank heavens we didn’t get drawn into it, because it would have not ended well I don’t think. It was a real interest, and it could have happened if the cost cap had come about.”

But the ironic twist of Ray Mallock in F1? Second in that 1981 Australian GP, behind his pal Roberto Moreno, was Ecclestone’s newly crowned world champion Nelson Piquet…

Mallock quickly found his feet in sportscars after his F1 disappointment and believes Group C suited him

Photo by: LAT Photographic

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Jorge Martin will have a chance to clinch the 2024 MotoGP title in Barcelona Grand Prix’s sprint race on Saturday. 

The Pramac rider needs to outscore factory Ducati rival Francesco Bagnaia by just two points in the half-distance event to be crowned champion and avenge for his defeat in 2023.

A total of 37 points are available in this weekend’s season finale, the venue for which has been moved to Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya due to heavy flooding in Valencia in the run-up to the event. 

As things stand, Martin stands at the top of the standings on 485 points, 24 clear of second-placed Bagnaia on 461.

A victory in the sprint race would guarantee Martin his maiden world championship ahead of the final grand prix of the season on Sunday, but he can seal the title by finishing as low as eighth.

The Spaniard must leave Saturday with a lead of at least 26 points in order to win the championship with the main race still to run.

A 25-point lead wouldn’t suffice as the two-time, reigning champion Bagnaia has won 10 grands prix in 2024 compared to three for Martin – but the Pramac rider has won more sprint races.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team, Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Photo by: Dorna

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How Jorge Martin can win the 2024 MotoGP title in the Barcelona sprint race

Bagnaia’s best hope of retaining the title is to win the sprint and take the fight to Sunday’s race. In fact, given the pace shown by the top two so far, the most likely scenario on Saturday is Bagnaia winning with Martin finishing as a close runner-up. 

But even if that scenario plays out, Martin will still have a substantial 21-point lead ahead of the main race in Barcelona. Then, even if Bagnaia wins the grand prix, Martin can clinch the title by finishing inside the top 11.

“It’s already a privilege to be here [fighting for the championship],” said Martin. “I will try to do it on Saturday if it’s possible, but it will be very difficult for sure.”

Winning the 2024 championship would be a major milestone for Martin, as it would make him the first rider to win a premier class title with a satellite team since Valentino Rossi’s triumph in the last year of the 500cc era in 2001.

It will also mean that Martin would depart Ducati as the current champion and take the number one plate with him to his new employer Aprilia.

BMW may slash its motorsport budget in 2025, with paddock sources suggesting that it could reduce factory support from three cars to just two in the DTM.

These rumours follow BMW announcing an 84% drop in profit in the third quarter of 2024, driven primarily by a decline in sales in China and an expensive vehicle recall programme.

BMW Motorrad, its two-wheel division, has already admitted that it will have to deal with a smaller budget in the World Superbike Championship next year. Now the question remains if these cost cuts will also apply to the marque’s four-wheel racing activities.

“Budget cut is the wrong term,” said Frank van Meel, the managing director of BMW M. “We always negotiate hard [with the BMW bosses to get more money for motorsport].”

BMW expanded its factory motorsport programme in 2024, entering a pair of M Hybrid V8 LMDh cars in the World Endurance Championship’s Hypercar class with WRT.

Asked specifically if BMW’s motorsport division will have more or less money available to spend in 2025, van Meel said: “Definitely not more money, because we added the WEC for the first time this year.

“We’ve gone up again because we’re now doing GT4, GT3 and WEC. And there’s a nice car [BMW M2 one-make] out here that will be added next year. We will remain loyal to motorsport. There is no need to worry.”

Marco Wittmann, Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

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BMW fielded three previous champions in the DTM this year, with Rene Rast, Sheldon van der Linde and Marco Wittmann all racing for the factory-supported Schubert team.

Schubert won the teams’ championship this year ahead of Audi’s Abt Sportsline, while BMW finished third in the manufacturers’ standings behind Mercedes and Lamborghini.

BMW motorsport director Andreas Roos said the German marque is still finalising the make-up of its DTM programme next year when asked if it could reduce its involvement to two cars.

“We are still completely open about that at the moment,” he said. “We also have sponsors attached to the cars and so on.

“These are the topics that we are now discussing after the season and we are looking to make sure that we are properly positioned for next year.

“We want to orient ourselves on what we have done in recent years.”

Amid the recent crisis in Germany’s auto industry, BMW may not be the only car manufacturer that would have to consider cost cuts next year. Volkswagen’s troubles have been well documented, with talk of the company reportedly shutting down at least three plants in its home country.

However, BMW’s van Meel stressed that the marque’s high-performance M division is performing well despite the overall decline in sales.

Franciscus van Meel, Managing Director BMW M GmbH

Photo by: BMW

“It helps that M GmbH remains on the road to success,” he said.

“We communicated that in September of this year our sales were still slightly above the previous year.

“Motorsport is and will remain relevant, it’s our DNA. Of course you always have to look at the money, but that doesn’t just apply to next year.

“That applies to this year and to the last decades. This is a success story, let’s continue it.”