Eduardo Freitas (born October 27, 1961) is a Portuguese motorsports official and race director. Freitas served as the race director for FIA Gran Turismo, the

European Touring Car Championship The European Touring Car Championship was an international touring car racing series organised by the FIA. It had two incarnations, the first one between 1963 and 1988, and the second between 2000 and 2004. In 2005 it was superseded by the World T ...

, the

European Le Mans Series The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the ...

, the

Asian Le Mans Series The Asian Le Mans Series is an Asian sports car racing endurance series created by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and based in Asia. It is the successor to the defunct Japan Le Mans Challenge which folded in 2007 after its second season. ...

and the

World Endurance Championship World Endurance Championship may refer to: * FIA World Endurance Championship, an auto racing series held since 2012 * World Sportscar Championship, an auto racing series which used the title World Endurance Championship from 1981 to 1985 * Endura ...

from 2002 to 2022. In this role, Freitas oversaw the logistics of

sports car A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...

touring cars Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition with heavily modified road-going cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States. While the cars do not mo ...

and endurance racing weekends, ensuring cars, tracks, and drivers conform to

FIA FIA is the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (English: International Automobile Federation), the world's governing body for all forms of motor sport where four or more wheels are used. Fia or FIA may also refer to: People * Fia Backst ...

regulations before, during, and after a race. In 2022, he replaced former race director

Michael Masi Michael Masi (born 8 June 1978) is an Australian motorsports official. Masi served as Formula One race director from 2019 to 2021. In this role, Masi oversaw the logistics of a Formula One racing weekend, ensuring all cars, tracks, and driver ...

, as

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

race director alongside

Niels Wittich Niels is a male given name, equivalent to Nicholas, which is common in Denmark, Belgium, Norway (formerly) and the Netherlands. The Norwegian and Swedish variant is Nils. The name is a developed short form of Nicholas or Greek Nicolaos after Saint ...

Early life

Freitas was born on October 27, 1961, in Portugal. Freitas described his teenage years, passion for motorcycles, around 1977, as "having fun on weekends repairing two-stroke engines on small motorcycles". From that a friend invited him "to do the same on a two-stroke carting engine."

Career

Early career

Similar to former Formula One race director

Charlie Whiting Charles Whiting (12 August 1952 – 14 March 2019) was a British motorsports director. He served as the FIA Formula One Race Director, Safety Delegate, Permanent Starter and head of the F1 Technical Department, in which capacities he generally ma ...

, Freitas then began his motorsport career, when a friend invited him to work as a karting mechanic during the World Karting Championship in Estoril, 1979. The Portuguese then rose through the ranks from track marshal to race director in karting. During his work as track secretary at the Estoril circuit in 2002, he was asked to lead the

FIA GT The FIA GT Championship was a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) at the behest of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship was mostly concentrated in Europe, but throughout ...

and ETCC Championship for a season, a role he retained until the end of 2009. After that, the FIA promoted Freitas to the FIA GT1 global championship, and in 2012, he was named race director for the WEC – World Endurance Championship. In total, he has worked in motorsports as mechanic, track marshal, track secretary, clerk of the course, and race director for single car, touring car and endurance racing events for over 40 years, including serving as race director for the FIA WEC, and the Le Mans 24 Hours Series, the ELMS – European Le Mans Series and the

for 20 years.

Formula One

In Formula One Freitas worked alongside both former Formula One race directors Michael Masi and his predecessor Charlie Whiting in

conferences and race director meetings at the governing body. During the 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix, he shadowed Michael Masi as part of the race direction team for his home race in Portimao, at the Algarve International Circuit in Portimao. Following the controversial ending of the 2021 Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, a petition was started by Formula One fans to appoint Freitas as new race director. On 17 February 2022, the FIA announced Masi was removed from his role as race director following an FIA analysis into the events of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Freitas and

replaced him, splitting the role as race directors, with

Herbie Blash Michael "Herbie" Blash (born 30 September 1948) is the Permanent Senior Advisor to the FIA Race Directors at Formula One races. Blash started at RRC Walker Racing as a mechanic before joining Lotus in 1968 to work with Graham Hill. Into the earl ...

acting as their "Permanent Senior Advisor". At the 2022 Japanese Grand Prix, a race directed by Freitas, there was a great controversy in which a recovery vehicle went out on the track to pick up

Carlos Sainz Carlos Sainz may refer to: People * Carlos Sainz Sr. (born 1962), Spanish rally driver world champion, father of Jr. * Carlos Sainz Jr. (born 1994), Spanish Formula One driver, son of Sr. Other uses * '' Carlos Sainz: World Rally Championship'', 1 ...

's car - who had had an accident - in wet conditions and without all the drivers regrouped. Despite the fact that the FOM did not show these images live, they were leaked on social networks, and several drivers spoke out against the action of the race director. Following the event, the FIA announced an investigation into what happened at the Grand Prix. Finally, on the weekend of the

United States Grand Prix The United States Grand Prix is a motor racing event that has been held on and off since 1908, when it was known as the American Grand Prize. The Grand Prix later became part of the Formula One World Championship. , the Grand Prix has been held ...

, the

admitted the mistakes made in Japan and announced that Eduardo Freitas would not be the race director again in 2022, leaving the position solely to Niels Wittich. Freitas had served as race director at 8 Grands Prix until then.

References

External links

FIA World Endurance Championship

Automobile Club de l'Ouest

Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freitas, Eduardo Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile Sports car racing series

Seasons A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

Endurance motor racing World auto racing series 1 1 Living people 1961 births