By AFPMore by this AuthorMELBOURNEFormula One's long-serving and widely respected race director Charlie Whiting died suddenly in Melbourne Thursday, leaving a "huge void in the sport" just days before the opening Grand Prix of the season. "I have known Charlie Whiting for many years and he has been a great race director, a central and inimitable figure in Formula One who embodied the ethics and spirit of this fantastic sport," he said. His broad role included overseeing track and car safety, procedural matters on Grand Prix weekends and starting the race itself. Formula one managing director Ross Brawn said he was "devastated" at the news, after knowing Whiting all his racing life. "We worked as mechanics together, became friends and spent so much time together at race tracks across the world.

Source: Daily Nation March 14, 2019 04:07 UTC