As Formula 1 and the FIA begin looking for a full-time replacement, Charlie Whiting’s impact on the sport is gaining more admiration.
The veteran race director suddenly passed away last Thursday in Australia of a pulmonary embolism, leaving the paddock in shock and resulting in Michael Masi being nominated as a temporary stand-in.
Thankfully, the weekend went by without incident but, as Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff admitted, the gap Whiting leaves is growing bigger.
“I think his [Charlie’s] shoes are impossible to fill,” the Austrian told Autosport.
“I had a chat with Ross Brawn on the way to the [grid] photo and the minute of silence, and he said they just discovered how much Charlie was doing.
“[This includes] trivialities like the cameras in dangerous positions, this is what Ross mentioned to me. A bunch of tasks and I didn’t have any direction with the race director in the race.
“Certainly there will be tough decisions to take in the future, and I think it’s impossible to replace Charlie.
“But whoever takes up that job, we need to support them.”
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Germany’s Der Spiegel has named Nikolas Tombazis and Peter Bayer as two potential candidates, while official deputy race director Scot Elkins, who wasn’t in Melbourne last year, is likely to be another.
“We’ve been thinking about it for some time already and Charlie was also involved because we knew he could not have his role forever,” FIA president Jean Todt said over the weekend.
“Now our people are working on a plan for the future that we unfortunately have to put into action sooner than we had hoped.”