The FIA has finalised its structure for the running of Formula 1 races this year with a permanent new deputy race director.
Rui Marques took over as race director towards the end of last season, when he was drafted in as a replacement for Niels Wittich, who departed on the eve of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The Portuguese presided over the final three F1 races of the year and The Race understands that he will continue to oversee the running of events for the 2025 campaign.
He'll be joined permanently by the FIA F1’s sporting manager Claire Dubbelman, who has been with the governing body since 2017, and will serve as deputy race director.
She previously held a championship manager role – where she helped oversee a total of 26 series including F2 and F3 - and also assisted in the deputy race director role before.
Dubbelman (below) is a product of the FIA’s High Performance Programme (HPP) for Officials, which is being ramped up as part of an effort by the governing body to deliver the talented race directors and stewards of the future.
The FIA has been bolstering the structure of race control, and there are now around six senior personnel involved – plus a wider Race Operations Team that includes technical support as well as personnel at the remote operations centre in Geneva.
Looking to the future, the FIA wants to have enough strength in depth that it can rotate race directors and avoid the risks of series being left struggling if a senior figure is suddenly unavailable to work.
Plans for this moved forward last week at the FIA Officials Summit in Madrid, which was attended by 124 stewards and 28 race directors.
It launched the next cycle of HPP which has welcomed 12 new students – six stewards and six race directors.
An FIA spokesman said: “The objective is to future proof race operations through the pathway created by the High Performance Programme for officials.
“Offering personalised training and development as part of the Stewards and Race Director Pathway, the FIA HPP works with participants to reach the pinnacle of officiating, preparing the next generation of FIA Officials to work at the highest level of motorsport.”
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem explained in Madrid that he felt it important that the governing body made moves to bring in fresh new talent longer term.
“There will be new blood and there will be more than one [race director]. That’s for sure,” he said.
“There have been people learning, there have been people working behind all the time. You can’t just throw somebody into this big challenge.”
