'One of the top people' leaving hit Red Bull hard, ex-F1 race director believes

Following Christian Horner’s recent exit from Red Bull, Niels Wittich—who was once dismissed by the FIA himself—believes the team deeply feels the absence of Jonathan Wheatley.

Wheatley, the former sporting director, is now the team principal at Sauber. Wittich had frequent contact with the Brit during his tenure as race director.

“He did his job excellently,” Wittich's said via the Boxengasse podcast. “He represented his team as well as he could, and of course, I did not always agree with him, but that's part of it.''

According to Wittich, there were moments when Wheatley and he clashed, as the German finds this completely understandable: “Of course, everyone is always looking for someone to blame [when things go wrong].''

Nevertheless, Wittich spoke highly about his professional relationship with Wheatley: “We never parted on bad terms. Yes, everyone basically did their job, as it's supposed to be done. And as far as I'm concerned, he was one of the top people [within Red Bull].”