Who Is the F1 Race Director? Powers, History & Rui Marques Explained
Every safety car, every red flag, every "the race will resume on lap X" comes from one person sitting in race control — not the stewards, not the team principals shouting on the pit wall. Here's who that person actually is, what they control, and why the job has changed hands five times since 2019.
F1 Race Director by the Numbers
- 1988: the year the FIA created a permanent, full-time race director role, first held by Roland Bruynseraede.
- 22 years: Charlie Whiting's tenure (1997-2019), the longest-serving race director in F1 history — he died just three days before the 2019 season opener.
- 2021: the year Michael Masi was removed after the FIA's own review called his Abu Dhabi safety-car restart call "human error."
- 1 season: how long the FIA's 2022 experiment splitting the role between Eduardo Freitas and Niels Wittich actually lasted before being scrapped.
- November 2024: when Rui Marques was promoted to F1 race director, debuting at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
- 2026: Paul Burns became deputy race director, replacing Claire Dubbelman — the first woman ever to hold an FIA race director super licence.
What the Race Director Actually Controls
The race director's authority is real-time and operational — everything that has to happen within seconds, not after a stewards review. Per the FIA's Formula 1 Sporting Regulations, the job breaks down into six core powers:
| Power | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Start Procedure | Signals the formation lap, the start itself, and any aborted-start or standing-restart sequence. |
| Safety Car Deployment | Authorises the safety car out and back in, and rules on which lapped cars, if any, may unlap themselves before a restart. |
| Virtual Safety Car | Can slow the entire field to a fixed delta time without a physical car on track, for lower-risk hazards. |
| Red Flag | Stops the session entirely for hazards too severe for a safety car — a stranded car blocking the racing line, extreme weather, or a barrier repair. |
| Track-Limits Monitoring | Oversees the process, though since 2026 an FIA remote operations room assists in flagging boundary breaches faster. |
| Referring Incidents | Passes potential rule breaches to the stewards for investigation — but casts no vote on the resulting penalty. |
That last line is the one fans mix up most often. Our F1 stewards guide covers the separate, judicially independent panel that actually decides penalties — the race director hands them a case, but has zero say in the verdict.
Five Race Directors Since 1988
The permanent role has only existed since 1988, and it's changed hands more in the last five years than in the previous three decades combined.
| Race Director | Years | Notable |
|---|---|---|
| Roland Bruynseraede | 1988-1995 | First person to hold the role full-time. |
| Charlie Whiting | 1997-2019 | Longest-serving; died 3 days before the 2019 season opener. |
| Michael Masi | 2019-2021 | Removed after the 2021 Abu Dhabi finale controversy. |
| Eduardo Freitas & Niels Wittich | 2022 | Shared the role on a race-by-race rotation; discontinued after one season. |
| Niels Wittich (solo) | 2023-2024 | Departed ahead of the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix. |
| Rui Marques | 2024-present | Current race director, praised by drivers for a collaborative style. |
The Call That Changed the Job: Abu Dhabi 2021
The clearest example of why this role matters is the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the last race of a season-long Hamilton-Verstappen title fight. A late-race crash brought out the safety car with five lapped cars sitting between race leader Hamilton and second-placed Verstappen. Michael Masi ordered only those five specific lapped cars to unlap themselves — not all of the lapped cars on track, as the regulations required — then restarted the race for one final lap. Verstappen, on fresher tyres directly behind Hamilton, overtook him on the restart and won both the race and the championship. Mercedes protested to the stewards, who dismissed it on the grounds that the race director had overriding authority over restart procedure — a decision our stewards explainer covers from the panel's side. The FIA's own subsequent review found Masi had misapplied the regulations and called it "human error." Masi was offered another role within the FIA but chose to leave the organisation entirely in 2022, and the governing body replaced the single race director position with the rotating Freitas/Wittich arrangement that same season.
2026 Update: A New Deputy in Race Control
Rui Marques enters his third full season in 2026 with a new deputy alongside him. Claire Dubbelman — the first woman to be granted an FIA race director super licence, and previously the deputy since 2024 — departed the FIA at the start of the year to join the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation, leaving the post open for the season's opening two rounds. The FIA promoted Paul Burns, who had served as assistant F2 race director through 2025 and worked F4 and Formula Regional sessions at the Macau Grand Prix, to fill the role. Marques and Burns now share the same race-control desk that Whiting occupied alone for 22 years — a reminder of how much the operation around a single decision-maker has grown since the FIA started publishing dedicated deputy and remote-operations roles.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the F1 race director in 2026?
Rui Marques, a Portuguese motorsport official who was promoted to F1 race director in November 2024 and made his debut at that year's Las Vegas Grand Prix. He previously worked as an FIA steward, scrutineer and race director for Formula 2 and Formula 3. Paul Burns took over as his deputy race director for 2026, after Claire Dubbelman — the first woman to hold an FIA race director super licence — departed to join the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation.
What's the difference between the race director and the stewards?
The race director runs the live session in real time — starting the race, deploying the safety car, showing red flags — and can refer incidents to the stewards, but has no vote on penalties. The stewards are a separate, judicially independent panel who investigate incidents after the fact and decide penalties. Our full F1 stewards guide breaks down exactly how that panel works.
Why was Michael Masi removed as F1 race director?
Masi was removed after the FIA's own post-season review of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix finale found he had incorrectly applied the safety-car restart procedure, letting only the five lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen unlap themselves instead of all lapped cars as the regulations required. The FIA's report attributed the error to human error under pressure rather than deliberate misconduct, but Masi left the FIA in 2022 rather than take an alternative role.
What happened to the two-race-director system in 2022?
After Masi's exit, the FIA split the role between Eduardo Freitas and Niels Wittich, who alternated race by race through the 2022 season. The rotation lasted only one year — Wittich took over solo from 2023 through his departure ahead of the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix, when Rui Marques was promoted into the role full-time.
The Bottom Line
The race director is the one job on a Grand Prix weekend where a single split-second call — safety car in or out, red flag or not — can decide a championship, as Abu Dhabi 2021 proved. Rui Marques has held that desk since late 2024, now with Paul Burns as his deputy, running the live show while a completely separate panel of stewards handles penalties after the fact. Our F1 marshals guide covers the trackside crews who feed information up to race control, our F1 pit wall guide covers the team side watching the same decisions unfold, and our formation lap explainer covers one of the race director's own start-procedure calls in more depth.