Tim Goss has become the third senior figure to quit the FIA in the last month after resigning as the governing body’s single-seater technical director. The third departure from the FIA follows that of sporting director Steve Nielsen and the departure of the head of the FIA’s Commission for Women, Deborah Mayer.
Nielsen will be replaced by Tim Malyon, the FIA’s safety director since 2021. The FIA has not yet made an appointment to replace Goss.
FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis said: “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.”
An FIA statement quoted Goss saying: “I believe the organisation is on a firm footing in terms of technical expertise for the tasks which lie ahead – particularly the introduction of the 2026 regulations.”
Goss who was McLaren’s technical director from 2014 to 2018. He was removed from his post as a result of a restructuring brought about by the team’s fall from competitiveness and later joined the FIA.
Malyon joined the governing body from BMW Formula E team and had previously been Sabuer’s head of engineering and had worked for Red Bull. Tombazis said: “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.”
Niels Wittich will continue in his role of race director, which he took on in 2022 after the departure from the FIA of his predecessor Michael Masi. Wittich will report to Malyon.
Three senior figures leaving the governing body at the start of the year is not a good look as the FIA seeks to repair its image following several scandals in 2021, which resulted in the then race director Michael Masi to ‘incorrectly applying the restart rules’ in Abu Dhabi following a late safety car.
That allowed, Max Verstappen to pass Lewis Hamilton for the lead on the final lap, ensuring the destiny of the world title passed from the Briton to the Dutchman.
“Total Mess”
One senior source within the governing body told BBC News that it is in “a total mess.” While there are suggestions that on Mayer’s departure, but it is said she decided not to reapply for her position after her term came to an end.
Nielsen – a highly respected figure within F1, with three decades of experience in sporting management – left because he believed the FIA was not willing to make the changes he felt were required to make its race-control operations fit for purpose.
Sources close to the FIA told BBC News Goss had similar frustrations with the internal operations of the FIA as Nielsen, as well as unhappiness over the process of creating the new technical rules that will be introduced in F1 in 2026.
All this adds to pressure on President Mohammed Ben Sulayem, whose first two years of his first term as president of the FIA have seen him embroiled in controversies. Including sexism, clamping down on free speech by drivers on “political statements” and interference in F1.
Last month, the FIA was undermined by both commercial rights holders F1 and all the F1 teams after it launched a compliance investigation into Mercedes F1 team principal Toto Wolff and his wife Susie, the director of the F1 Academy for aspiring female racing drivers.
The ethics investigation was met with anger by Mercedes, rival teams and F1, who released coordinated and identically worded statements saying they had made no such complaint.
The ethics investigation was then closed two days after it had been announced The dispute comes against a backdrop of worsening relations between F1 and the FIA on several fronts. Ben Sulayem said in February last year that he was stepping back from direct involvement in F1.
He has been allegations that despite stepping back from a role in F1 he continues to be linked to a series of incidents in recent months as being directly linked to him, including the decision to call Wolff and Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur to the stewards at the final race of the season for swearing in a news conference.
