FIA Director of Formula One Charlie Whiting passes away suddenly

The FIA is deeply saddened to report that its Director of Formula One Charlie Whiting has died suddenly aged 66 after suffering a pulmonary embolism overnight on Thursday morning in Melbourne, where he was set to officiate at this weekend’s season-opening Australian GP.

“It is with immense sadness that I learned of Charlie’s passing,” said FIA President Jean Todt. “Charlie Whiting was a great Race Director, a central and inimitable figure in Formula One who embodied the ethics and spirit of this fantastic sport. Formula 1 has lost a faithful friend and a charismatic ambassador in Charlie. All my thoughts, those of the FIA and entire motor sport community go out to his family, friends, and all Formula One lovers.“

Whiting began his Formula One in 1977 when he joined the Hesketh team as a mechanic. The team, which had brought James Hunt to worldwide recognition, was in a parlous state when Whiting joined and when it closed at the end of the season, he moved to Bernie Ecclestone’s Brabham squad the following year.

Whiting stayed with the team for the next decade, working on the cars of Niki Lauda and Nelson Piquet before rising to the position of chief mechanic during the period it twice took Piquet to Drivers’ Championship glory, in 1981 and 1983.

He left Brabham at the end of the 1987 season, when Ecclestone sold the team. At Ecclestone’s suggestion Whiting joined the FIA’s technical department in 1988, initially working under then technical delegate Gabriel Cadringher before becoming technical delegate in 1990. Later in the decade he took on the race starter role he is perhaps most publicly well known for, assumed the position of safety delegate and took on responsibility for circuits.

In 1997 he was appointed Formula One Race Director and in the more two decades that followed steered the running of 400 grands prix.

Following his sudden passes tributes to Whiting have flowed in from teams and drivers across Formula One.

Info & Photo FIA