His name might not have been well known to the public, but within the series he had earned a lot of respect thanks to his spell with the FIA under Jean Todt.
The 52-year-old Austrian has a busy CV, having worked in a variety of sports before finding his way into motor racing. As such he brings an intriguing range of experience to the job of overseeing the political and commercial aspects of the Faenza outfit.
Born in 1971, Bayer was an F1 fan in his youth, and he grew up watching races on the national ORF channel with his father.
"Niki Lauda was such a national hero, he was bigger than anything in Austria," he recalls. "I know we have Mozart and other famous people, but Niki was somebody that for me was just an incredible person."
After completing a business administration degree Bayer hoped to get a job in motor racing, but he had no contacts and no way in, with a cold call to Bernie Ecclestone's office asking for advice leading nowhere. Instead, his life took another direction.
"I spent a lot of time back then skiing and snowboarding and climbing," he recalls. "And I met some people who said, 'Come and work with us,' which is why I joined the International Snowboard Federation.
"And that was a great experience. I understood quickly that there is a niche where a lot of commercial partners want to get into things like this because they can reach out to a younger audience.
"Snowboarding was very much a mix of sports, culture, lifestyle, music, fashion. We organised snowboarding events, and we then added music festivals. The next step was I created my own electronic music festival in 2005, called Soundcity, which was one of the two biggest in Austria."
His involvement in winter sports led to an opportunity to work with the International Olympic Committee on a new project.
"The IOC created the Youth Olympic Games to remain relevant to a younger audience. It started in 2010 in Singapore, and then in 2012 in Innsbruck at the first winter games I was acting as CEO."
Source: Autosport