Bojan Vrbnjak
formula 1 started this season with renewed cast director of FIA races. Gerhard berger looks at this personnel change very critical. According to him, they could also choose an easier solution to reform the position of race director. His proposal reads: "We could act like in football, because there the referee can also make a mistake and he will make it, and in the end it is easy to accept. Because then it's an actual decision."
Sam thinks that would be the most pragmatic system. Because otherwise it exists alternativethat long after the race legal debate. "Of course, with ten monitors and six lawyers later, you can always look for mistakes and reopen the subject over and over again. But is it good for sports ?,He asks rhetorically Berger, which adds that this has been the case in the past. Only in times Charlie Whiting the framework conditions of the race director were different. “I believe Charlie made mistakes too. But it was with him that he was so politically strong that no one said anything about it. The FIA also covered it 100%, it was a well-coordinated team."
Za Austrian such a system needs to be further evaluated the right choice director of racing, as a precaution against intentional influence. “He must make sure that the judges are 100% clean and impartial.“Individuals wrong decisions this approach cannot be avoided, but simply falls into the category of "Bad Luck“. However, the FIA, after dealing with the events in Abu Dhabi decided on a different solution in its package of measures. There was a main focus on reducing tasks, which the race director must meet in his person. That included elimination of direct communication between the team leaders and the race management, division of the position of race director to three people (two each racing weekend) and last but not least the introduction virtual race control.
The latter, which is known from football (VAR), is at Berger met with great disapproval. “If you set up this control room with twenty people and all the technical equipment, then I don't know if that doesn't lead to over-regulation at the end of the day,”He says Berger, which on the other hand supports division of tasks director of a multi-person race. “Due to the complexity with which Formula 1 is on the way, you need more heads. We have seen mistakes happen when everything is put on the shoulders of one man."This year they are playing the role of race director Eduardo Freitas (from WEC) and Niels Wittitch (from DTM), and both were appointed as consultants Herbie Blash. For Berger, it’s a job two officials from other series and return retired official proof that Formula 1 has failed to train its own people for this task.
