The Whiting traits emerging from F1’s new race control

After the opening three rounds of Formula 1’s new race direction of Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas being in charge, key qualities from Charlie Whiting’s era have surfaced and met by various reactions from teams and drivers. But as the series looks to move on from the controversial end to the 2021 season, it marks the start that was needed

Any good referee knows that give players an inch, they will take a mile.

At a top level series like Formula 1, where the marginal gains at the limits of the rulebook are what make the difference between hero and zero, being fast and loose with what people are allowed to get away with is the recipe for anarchy.

Instead, if you want to keep control of the game, rules need to be strictly enforced and in a consistent manner so everyone knows exactly where the threshold is. If everyone is treated equally and in a transparent way, then there can be no grounds for complaint. Accept no nonsense, people don’t misbehave.

Share Or Save This Story

Author Jonathan Noble

Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.

Jonathan has won multiple awards for journalism - in 1991 he was the winner of the Guild of Motoring Writers’ Sir William Lyons’ Award for young journalists, in 2010 he was awarded the Outstanding Individual accolade for consumer journalism in the Haymarket wards, in 2011 he won Haymarket’s Scoop of the Year, and in 2018 he was awarded a prestigious Medaglia d’Oro at the Lorenzo Bandini Awards for his contribution to F1 journalism.