Germany’s motorsport-magazin.com quoted Wittich saying: “I’ve not resigned.” Its F1 reporter Christian Menath stated on X that Wittich had advised him he was fired.
The FIA stated it couldn’t present any data past its official assertion.
It’s extremely uncommon for an F1 race director to be modified throughout a season, particularly given there are simply three races remaining and each the drivers’ and constructors’ championships stay undecided.
The choice was not broadly anticipated inside F1, though some insiders had heard Wittich would get replaced on the finish of the season.
A senior supply stated that Wittich had left sooner than anticipated on account of his relationship with FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
Wittich is the newest in a sequence of senior folks to go away the FIA previously 12 months.
Sporting director Steve Nielsen quit the organisation in December 2023 after lower than a 12 months in his function. His departure adopted that of Deborah Mayer, the top of the FIA fee for girls.
In January, main engineer Tim Goss left his role as single-seater technical director. He’s now at Purple Bull’s RB crew.
And in Could Natalie Robyn left her role as chief executive officer, external after simply 18 months within the place.
Wittich’s departure comes after an issue regarding the FIA’s racing pointers broke out inside F1 final month, following a battle between title contenders Max Verstappen and Lando Norris throughout the US Grand Prix.
On the subsequent race in Mexico, the FIA agreed with the drivers that it would revise the guidelines with the purpose of stopping a type of defence that has been perfected by Verstappen and is permitted by the present guidelines.
Ben Sulayem’s stewardship of the FIA has been marked by a sequence of controversies, the newest of which was a letter revealed final week by the Grand Prix Drivers’ Affiliation wherein they requested to be handled like adults within the wake of Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc being punished for swearing.
In addition they requested Ben Sulayem to thoughts his “tone and language” when addressing the subject, after he was criticised by Lewis Hamilton for utilizing “stereotypical” language with a “racial aspect”.
It isn’t clear whether or not Wittich’s departure is said to both state of affairs.
His predecessor Masi left the FIA after his function within the controversy on the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2021.
Masi ignored the foundations throughout a late safety-car interval in that race and his selections led to Lewis Hamilton, who had been on target to win an eighth world title by profitable the race, being overtaken by Max Verstappen, making the Dutchman champion as an alternative.
Wittich has been much less overtly controversial in his function, however there has remained an underlying discontent amongst groups and drivers concerning the administration of FIA race management.
