JANUARY 10, 2024

Goss extends FIA's talent exodus

Highly experienced Formula 1 man Tim Goss has left the FIA at the start of this year, extending the talent exodus that has been hitting the Federation’s sporting department, just weeks after Steve Nielsen gave his notice and will leave his role as Sporting Director at the end of this month. Goss has now left his position as Single-seater Technical Director and is believed to be on the verge of returning to the competitive side of Grand Prix racing, joining one of the Formula 1 teams in the next couple of weeks.

The 60-years old engineer raised through the ranks at McLaren, having joined Ron Dennis’ team at the start of 1990 to become Technical Director between 2014 and 2018, when his role was taken by James Key. After doing some work for the FIA Goss accepted the position of Single-seater Technical Director one year ago, when newly elected president Mohammed Ben Sulayem expanded the Federation’s technical department, but has left after just 12 months in the job.

In a statement put out by the Federation, Technical Director Nikolas Tombazis confirmed the departure of Goss, admitting that, “we are 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. We understand that his career is taking a new direction going forward and we support and respect his desire to pursue another path."

Goss’ departure comes just weeks after the highly respected Steve Nielsen decided to slam the door and leave the FIA, allegedly frustrated with the lack of changes that were being made and his departure was lamented by teams and drivers who had offered high praise to the man who was, effectively, the mastermind of the complicated logisics that allowed Formula 1 to continue to race during the Covid-19 pandemic, when he was still working for FOM, and was completing an overhaul of the Formula 1 Sporting Regulations, to make them much more simple to read and understand, cleaning up the confusion that countless clarifications had created for the teams, the officials and the fans.

Nielsen has been replaced by Tim Malyon, who moves up from his previous role as FIA’s Safety Director, the Canadian boasting a reasonable expwrience in Formula E and the DTM, in both cases working for BMW. Speaking about the newly promoted, Tonbazis explained that, Tim has a wealth of motorsport experience and expertise at the highest level. 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.

Maylon, for his side, added that, “I am delighted to be taking on the role of Sporting Director. We have already brought significant change to our Race Direction operation with the support of the ROC and I look forward to taking that to the next level. We are also committed to a broad regulatory review of sporting matters, and I look forward to applying a sharper focus to those efforts in the future.”

While Nielsen and Goss’ departure are getting a lot of media attention, during the winter the FIA also lost the services of Deborah Mayer, who decided against renewing her contract and left the role of Head of the Woman’s Commission, having yet to be replaced.