Former Formula 1 chief Bernie Ecclestone believes the sudden death of Charlie Whiting will be a “big, big loss” to the sport.
The long-time FIA race director passed away in Australia on Thursday having suffered from a pulmonary embolism, with the governing body installing Michael Masi into his role for this weekend.
Speaking to Reuters, however, Ecclestone admits the impact Whiting had in shaping today’s F1 means the FIA face an “impossible” task to replace him.
“It’s a big, big, big loss to Formula 1,” the Briton said. “He kept things on the road and kept the FIA pretty well straight because he’d look after the rules and everything else.
“People talk about him as a race director but it was a small part of all the things he did. A talented guy who loved doing what he wanted to do.
“Two or three of the top, top teams tried to get him to be their team manager but he thought he could do a lot better for everyone doing what he did.”
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Ecclestone even thinks it may take more than one person to fill the gap Whiting leaves such was the wide-ranging tasks he undertook.
“He’d seen it, heard it and done it all,” he continued. “He did it as a one-man job. It’s finding this person who can do what Charlie did. If you’ve got three or four people doing what he did, it just doesn’t work.
“Nobody really knew what Charlie was or what he did. He did so many things, and nobody really knew and they’d be surprised if they knew the things he did do.”
