Steve Nielsen has resigned from his post as the FIA’s Sporting Director after spending less than one year in the role, reports have claimed.
According to the BBC, Nielsen has parted ways with the governing body as he felt that “the FIA was not willing to make the changes required” to make its operations fit for purpose.
Having spent five years as the Sporting Director of Formula 1, Nielsen joined the FIA in January 2023 as part of a wider restructuring where he was tasked with improving race management in the wake of a series of controversies in recent years.
Working closely with race director Niels Wittich, Nielsen headed the FIA’s overhaul of its race control and remote operations centre as well as guiding future changes to the sporting regulations.
It is understood that Nielsen’s departure was communicated to the FIA internally on December 21st although neither he nor the FIA have made an official comment on the matter as of yet.
Nielsen had been a well-respected figure in the F1 paddock for the past three decades, first entering the sport as a driver for catering group MSL Global before joining Lotus’ test team as a truck driver in 1986.
After a tenure as Lotus’ spares coordinator, he then made the switch to Tyrell in 1991 where he performed the same role before climbing the ranks to team manager, a role he would also perform at Honda and Arrows.
He then spent the best part of a decade as Sporting Director of Benetton through its morphing into Renault and latterly Lotus before spells at Caterham, Toro Rosso and Williams before taking up the role as F1’s Sporting Director in 2017.
Nielsen was welcomed into the FIA’s fold earlier this year by president Mohammed Ben Sulayem who at the time said: “We have dedicated a lot of time and effort to making significant, informed changes to our Formula 1 team to create the right structure with the right people to oversee the future regulation of the sport.
“By developing and empowering people within our organisation, as well as bringing in expertise and experience from the outside, I am confident that we are in the best position possible to move forward together with our partners at FOM and the Formula 1 teams.”
It has been suggested that the 59-year-old had grown frustrated with the FIA’s current approach to F1 governance which has seen Ben Sulayem come under scrutiny, most recently for the handling of a compliance investigation launched against Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff and his wife and F1 Academy director Susie Wolff.
The investigation was dropped two days after it was opened following a coordinated response from the remaining nine teams on the grid who all denied levelling such allegations.
Nielsen is the second senior figure to leave the FIA this month as it was revealed that the head of the FIA’s Commission for Women, Deborah Mayer, had also resigned from her post on December 13th.
