Charlie Whiting

I worked late last night so I could help the F1 race control team in Australia with a few issues.

I asked how it was going and they said ‘ not good, you’ll find out tomorrow ‘. I presumed some massive technical problem.

Sadly not. We’ve met Charlie several times as we worked with his team on a number of projects. He always had time for people, no matter who they were. So I was very saddened to read he’d died overnight.

Last time I saw him was when I took Alfie to the Belgian GP a couple of years ago. We were in the FIA circuit offices on the Thursday morning which is always really busy, but Charlie made time to come and see us. He said hello to me and then introduced himself to Alf, shaking his hand and striking up a conversation ( Alf was a little star struck ). He then let Alf into race control and arranged a garage tour with Renault for us.
A kind, clever, fair and generous man, he will be sorely missed.