The conclusions of the FIA report on the controversial handling of the safety car at last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix indicated that “a new F1 sporting director would be hired”, something that has already happened.
DAMS sporting director François Sicard will fill this role, although his final title and full job description have yet to be determined.
Sporting director was one of several jobs previously held by Michael Masi, but this position has now been relocated to be between the head of the FIA’s single-seater department, Peter Bayer , and the main people in charge of organizing the Grand Circus. , among which are the new race directors, Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas .
Sicard’s duties are expected to include overseeing the development of sporting regulations, along with liaising with the F1 organization on matters such as the calendar and circuit licensing.
In addition, the Frenchman must serve as support in the lower single-seater categories, such as F2, F3, F4 and Formula Regional , all of them managed by the governing body.
The FIA is understood to have considered various options for the appointment, including several current Formula 1 team sporting directors, but none of them were available to accept it.
Sicard has not been in the top category, but the Frenchman has a lot of experience in the sport, and has worked with some drivers on the current 2022 grid. A business graduate, he joined Renault in 1991 in a marketing position, and a decade later it passed to Renault Sport.
In 2005 he participated in the creation of the World Series by Renault championship, which he directed until the end of the 2007 season and where some renowned drivers such as Sebastian Vettel, Robert Kubica or Pastor Maldonado competed.
Following this, he joined the Oak Racing LMP2 team as General Manager, spending four seasons in the role, before moving to DAMS in January 2012, also as Sporting Director.
Davide Valsecchi won the GP2 title that year, and Jolyon Palmer followed in his footsteps in 2014, and since then, after the conversion to F2, the best result achieved was second place for Nicholas Latifi in 2019, although they were the champions by teams.
Kevin Magnussen took over the Formula Renault 3.5 Series with DAMS in 2013, and Carlos Sainz repeated it just one season later. This outfit has also won three constructors’ titles in Formula E under Sicard.
Drivers of the stature of Alex Albon or Pierre Gasly know the Frenchman’s working methods, since they shared a stage in DAMS.
The date on which Sicard will start his new job is still unknown, but it is likely to be in a few weeks, while he finalizes his commitments with the Le Mans structure.
