FIA confirms departures of Nielsen and Goss from F1 roles

The FIA has confirmed the departure of two senior figures from its Formula 1 division, including a major hiring appointed less than a year ago.

Steve Nielsen joined the Federation from Formula 1 Management to serve as its sporting director. The FIA trumpeted his arrival in January last year, saying it completed the restructuring of its F1 operations.

The FIA has confirmed today Nielsen will stand down from his role at the end of the month. Tim Goss, technical director, who joined the FIA in 2021, is also leaving the governing body to take up a role elsewhere.

The director of the FIA’s single-seater division, Nikolas Tombazis, said Nielsen “has been a fantastic asset to the single-seater department over the course of the 2023 Formula 1 season and has been part of a crucial year of development and positive steps forward in our activities.

“There is, of course, still a lot to do, and we will be building on these strong foundations over the coming years.”

Tombazis added the FIA was also “disappointed to lose a person of Tim’s calibre from the organisation.”

“Tim has played a major part in the technical department and has always operated to the highest level.”

The departures come at a vital time for the FIA as it works to define new regulations for the 2026 F1 season. A change in engine formula has already been agreed, and attracted the interest of new manufacturers, but the chassis rules are yet to be finalised.

The FIA also confirmed the promotion of Tim Malyon to the role of single-seater sporting director. Malyon, who worked at Red Bull and Sauber before joining the FIA in 2019, will oversee the race operations centre and race direction, which Niels Wittich will continue as the FIA’s F1 race director.

“Tim has a wealth of motorsport experience and expertise at the highest level,” said Tombazis. “He will play a major role as we continue to bring rigour to our sporting and regulatory practices and procedures, and he will drive the innovation we have brought to our race control operation.

“Tim has been pivotal in creating a strong synergy between race control and the ROC with the introduction of new technology including artificial intelligence and state-of-the-art data analysis and processing systems. He will continue to oversee advances in that area as well as taking the lead on the evolution of [the] FIA sporting regulations.”

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