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Former Williams Formula 1 driver Sergey Sirotkin has been appointed the executive director of the Russian Automobile Federation.
Sirotkin, 26, has replaced Sergey Ivanov in the role and will be serving under federation president Viktor Kiryanov – in the role since 2003.
The ex-F1 driver has been appointed into the position from May 1 onwards, but the official announcement came only this Thursday.
“Friends, I’ve said it many times that my mission and target is the development and growth in popularity of auto racing in our country – and I’ve been actively working on that for several years,” Sirotkin wrote on Instagram.
“Today I am sharing with you another piece of news, no less exciting and important to me – recently I was appointed as the executive director of the Russian Automobile Federation.
“I believe that together we can get to the next stage in the development of auto racing in our country!”
Sirotkin scored one point in his single season as a full-time F1 driver in the uncompetitive Williams FW41 in 2018, and subsequently served as reserve driver for Renault, Williams and McLaren – while also trying his hand at the World Endurance Championship.
Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he looked to have changed his primary focus to his non-driving pursuits, such as his Moscow-based karting academy – and it was even that his driving career might be effectively over.
However, his long-time backer SMP Racing claimed he had been in the process of sealing an international racing return in the GT World Challenge Endurance Cup for 2022 – which it says was scuppered due to the FIA’s demands amid the Ukraine war for Russian drivers to race under neutral status and formally agree to a set of FIA-prescribed conditions.
