Race control and the race director
Race control is the room at the circuit where FIA officials run every session. It is led by the race director, who has the final say on how a session is run: when it starts, when flags come out, when to send out the safety car and when to stop the race with a red flag.
The race director does not hand out penalties. That's the job of the stewards, a separate panel that judges incidents and applies the rules. The race director can report an incident to them, but the decision is theirs. Keeping the two roles apart means the person running the race isn't also the judge.
What the race director does
The race director is an FIA official who works at every Grand Prix of the season. Their main jobs are:
- running the session timetable and the start procedure
- deciding when to show yellow flags, deploy the safety car or virtual safety car, and when to red flag a session
- deciding when it's safe to restart, and in what form
- controlling the pit exit lights and closing the pit entry if needed
- making sure the circuit, barriers and marshals are ready before each session
- sending messages to all teams through the official messaging system, such as "LAPPED CARS MAY NOW OVERTAKE"
- writing the event notes, a document issued before each race weekend with track-specific instructions, such as where drivers must rejoin after cutting a chicane
The race director also chairs the drivers' briefing before each event, where drivers can raise safety concerns and ask how rules will be applied.
Who else is in race control
The race director works with a team of FIA staff and local officials. The FIA appoints a set of delegates for every event, including:
- a deputy race director
- a safety delegate, who looks after circuit safety
- a medical delegate, who oversees the medical services (see the medical car and medical centre)
- a technical delegate, who runs scrutineering
- a sporting delegate and a media delegate
- the drivers of the safety car and medical car
There's also a clerk of the course, appointed by the local motorsport authority, who manages the local officials and marshals and works under the race director's instructions.
How race control sees the track
Race control has live pictures from dozens of trackside cameras and onboard cameras, live timing and GPS positions for every car, and radio links to every marshal post. Every car also carries an FIA control unit that sends data back, such as speeds under yellow flags and whether a car is above the minimum time during a safety car.
The race director can listen to team radio, and messages from teams arrive through the official channels. Since 2022 teams have no longer been allowed to talk to the race director live on the radio during a session. That change came after the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where team bosses lobbied the race director over the radio while the safety car was out.
Changes since 2021
The end of the 2021 season led to a shake-up of race control. Michael Masi, race director since 2019, was replaced. The FIA also set up a Remote Operations Centre at its offices in Geneva, which works like a video assistant referee in football. Staff there watch the race in real time and help race control with decisions such as track limits and checking incidents, so the race director doesn't carry the whole load alone.
The people in the race director role have changed a few times since then. The FIA lists the current officials for each event in the documents it publishes on its website.