"The best drivers' briefing for a long time", drivers hail new race director after his debut in Las Vegas

Having started his new role as Formula One's race director, George Russell and Carlos Sainz reckon that Rui Marques has been given a massive task with only three races left in 2024. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo delivers what Russell and Sainz had to say in relation to the new race director.

Ahead of this weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix, Formula One's governing body, the FIA announced that Race Director Niels Wittich would leave his role with immediate effect.

After Michael Masi left Formula One at the end of the controversial 2021 F1 season, Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas were appointed to take on the role of F1 race director. The pair initially shared the role in 2022, but Freitas left F1 at the end of that season, which saw Wittich take on the job full-time in 2023.

After the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, the sport's governing body confirmed that the German would step down from his role with immediate effect and would be replaced by Rui Marques from the this weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix onwards.

Marques has been long involved in motorsport, taking on a variety of roles, having been a track marshal, scrutineer, national and international steward, Deputy Race Director and Race Director in various championships. He was most recently F2 and F3 Race Director.

Having taken pole position for Saturday's Las Vegas Grand Prix, George Russell was asked to comment on his impression of the new race director. The Briton reckoned that the first impression was "positive."

"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 heard and we want to see action taken straight away. So I mean, so far it's been positive."

Having secured second spot for the Nevadan race, Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz noted that Marques "has 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.

"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. The way we were listening yesterday was honestly also a very positive meeting and I'm encouraged by that," commented Sainz.