GPDA director George Russell admits that he and his colleagues are concerned at the unrest at the FIA.

Today it was announced that Rui Marques, who was appointed F1 race director after his predecessor was sacked ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, would also continue in his former role as F2 race director.

This followed the news that his former deputy, Janette Tam, who had been appointed F2 (and F3) race director following his promotion has also been fired.

The sackings come in the wake of a raft of high-profile departures from the sport's governing body over the last twelve months including sporting director Tim Nielsen, technical director Tim Goss, chief executive officer Natalie Robyn, the head of commission for women Deborah Mayer, secretary general of mobility Jacob Bangsgaard and director of communications Luke Skipper.

Admitting his shock at Tam's sacking, Tim Mayer, a senior steward for over a decade and who has also been fired this week, laid the blame for the unrest at the door of president, Mohammed ben Sulayem.

"She is the epitome of the type of person we want working for the FIA, the best of the next generation of race directors," he told the BBC. "I don't know the circumstances, but one would think they would work very hard to keep someone of her character.

"I know how hard both of those jobs are," he said of Marques who is now in the unprecedented position of being race director for F1 and F2 this weekend. "I like Rui a lot, but it will put him under incredible pressure.

"There aren't a lot of 'platinum-level' FIA race directors, which is the FIA's highest level certification. I'm one of them. It's a lot of work and, if you are doing the job right, you wake up every day with an ulcer thinking of all the various things you need to be thinking about.

"They're not doing themselves any favours," he said of the FIA. "They are literally running out of people to do those jobs."

Mayer, who was sacked by text, believes that Ben Sulayem was personally unhappy with him for his role in the recent appeal by the Circuit of the Americas following the track invasion at the event, while also questioning some of the FIA president's actions such as his clampdown on swearing.

"His view is that the drivers need to be penalised for swearing and what has happened since reflects that," said Mayer. "There are times when he has directly involved himself in making his views known. Not with the stewards directly, but via his staff.

"Part of the job of the stewards is to enforce the FIA's policy on the rules," he added. "Technically, bad language is outlawed, so it's not unfair. Whether it's sensible we should be chasing drivers for rather mild swearing is another matter.

"Most drivers, English is their second, third or fourth language and every go-kart kid in the world, it's the first word they are taught in English. There are other ways to handle that kind of thing unless your desire is to flex your muscles."

The GPDA recently took to social media to pen an open letter to the FIA, asking the sport's governing body to treat them like adults, whilst also questioning where the money resulting from fines has gone.

The latest upheaval has not eased the drivers' concern.

"Just when we've asked for transparency and consistency, we're getting rid of two highly important people in the governing body. It's gone in full 360," said GPDA director, Russell. "We still don't have any reasoning for Niels' removal and I don't think anybody was informed about Tim leaving.

"The first I heard about the new race director doing Formula 2 this weekend was through the media. Naturally in any organisation, if you've got people leaving or change of personnel, it's never going to be a stable environment. People have to learn the new rules and that's very challenging for any team. It must be super challenging for everyone within the FIA right now. We'd love to get a little bit of clarity and understanding of what's going on and who's getting fired next."