YOU should marvel on the audacity of FIA race director Niels Wittich.
He steered the Purple Bull Ring make adjustments to cease a repeat of Sunday’s farce.
Niels Wittich ought to settle for the VAR-style room at Geneva didn’t workCredit score: Splash
Haas driver Kevin Magnussen veered onto gravel on the Purple Bull Ring, which Wittich needs added to the ultimate two corners of the circuitCredit score: EPA
Eight drivers had been handed a spread of penalties properly after Sunday’s raceCredit score: Splash
The Austrian Grand Prix become a humiliation because the stewards had been compelled to re-watch the race after failing to dish out penalties accurately.
You had a ridiculous state of affairs that noticed EIGHT drivers issued with post-race penalties that meant the outcomes of the race, which had completed FIVE HOURS earlier, needed to be modified.
Wittich was introduced in to interchange Michael Masi — the previous race director who mucked up the end result of the 2021 season finale in Abu Dhabi.
Now he needs the Purple Bull Ring to put in gravel on the last two corners.
Doing so would forestall drivers from working huge, the rule his stewards had been in control of monitoring — and issuing penalties.
However the circuit, additionally host to the Austrian MotoGP race the place gravel shouldn’t be an possibility, is to not blame.
The largest failure was the FIA’s much-lorded VAR-style room at their Geneva HQ, which was designed for the very function of issuing penalties in actual time.
Launched within the wake of Masi’s cock-up, it’s presupposed to act as further pairs of eyes with appropriate and swift determination making.
The Austrian GP confirmed that it merely doesn’t work and the game has been made to look amateurish.
Not solely that however it should drive a greater wedge between F1 and the FIA.
There may be now a sense within the paddock that Wittich is just less than the duty of managing an F1 race.
He’s the former race director of the DTM collection and likewise held the place in F2 and F3.
Possibly it’s not the Purple Bull Ring that wants altering however actually the race director himself.