Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel have led the tributes to Charlie Whiting, the Formula One race director who died suddenly on Thursday, three days before the first grand prix of the season in Australia. Whiting, who had been at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne on Wednesday, died as a result of a pulmonary embolism. He was 66.

Whiting had been the FIA race director since 1997 and was responsible for all activity on track over a race weekend including safety, starting the race and enforcing rules and regulations. He had been a driving force in promoting safety in F1, including the introduction of the halo cockpit protection device last year, which subsequently proved invaluable in preventing Charles Leclerc from being hit by an airborne car at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Well-liked and hugely respected, the paddock was left shocked at the news of his death. “I have known Charlie since I started in 2007,” said Hamilton. “Incredibly shocked to hear the sad news and my thoughts and prayers are with his family. All he did for the sport, his commitment, he really was a pillar, such an iconic figure within the sporting world and he contributed so much to us. May he rest in peace.”

Hamilton also recognised Whiting’s commitment to making F1 safer. “Charlie did so much for this sport and helped push on so many areas for the drivers and their safety,” he posted on Instagram.

Vettel, who has also known Whiting since he began in Formula One in 2007, was with the race director the day before his death. “I spoke to him yesterday and walked the first corners of the track with him,” the Ferrari driver said. “It is difficult to grasp when somebody is just not there any more. I have known him for a long time. He has been our man, the drivers’ man – there’s the regulations and there’s us, and he was the middle man.

“You could ask anything at any time, he was open to anyone; his door was always open. He was a racer, just a very nice guy. I am shocked. All out thoughts, the whole paddock, the whole family of F1, our thoughts are with him and his family.”

Whiting had a long career in motor sport. He started out by preparing rally cars before running a Surtees car with his brother for Divina Galica in the 1976 British F5000 series.

He joined the Hesketh F1 team in 1977 before linking up with Bernie Ecclestone’s Brabham, where he remained for a decade. He was chief mechanic and later chief engineer when Nelson Piquet won his titles with the team in 1981 and 1983. In 1988 he joined the FIA as technical delegate to Formula One and became director in 1997.

Ecclestone, a long-time friend of Whiting, said: “It’s a big, big, big loss. He kept things on the road and kept the FIA pretty well straight, because he’d look after the rules and everything else. People talk about him as a race director but it was a small part of all the things he did. A talented guy who loved doing what he wanted to do.

Tributes have poured in for Whiting, with Toto Wolff calling him ‘a pillar of our F1 family’. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

“Two or three of the top teams tried to get him to be their team manager but he thought he could do a lot better for everyone doing what he did. He did it as a one-man job. It’s finding this person who can do what Charlie did. If you’ve got three or four people doing what he did, it just doesn’t work.”

Ecclestone added: “He went to bed and didn’t get up in the morning, which is as good as it gets if you’ve got to leave us.”

Ross Brawn, the F1 managing director of motorsports, said he was devastated. “I was filled with immense sadness when I heard the tragic news. It is a great loss not only for me personally but also the entire Formula One family.”

The Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, described Whiting as a “guardian of the sport’s best interests”, while the Red Bull chief, Christian Horner, said he was “a great man” and “a man of great integrity”. The head of Ferrari, Mattia Binotto, said he was “a tireless and enlightened motorsport expert, he helped make F1 safer and better. He was a pillar of Formula One.”

The FIA president, Jean Todt, said: “Charlie Whiting was a great race director, a central and inimitable -figure in Formula One who embodied the ethics and spirit of this fantastic sport.”

The FIA has appointed Michael Masi as the race director, permanent starter and safety delegate for -Sunday’s grand prix. The Australian was already a deputy race director to Whiting and worked with him at several of last season’s grands prix.

The Haas team principal, Gunther Steiner, said the teams will do everything they can to support Masi. “We are here to make it happen for the people that need to step in, because these are big shoes that need to be filled,” he said.

“In the end we’ll make sure nothing goes through the cracks. For this weekend our aim is, ‘If they need our help, we’re here to help.’”