The FIA, motorsport’s global governing body, has had several major personnel changes over the last month.
It began with Deborah Mayer, president of the Women in Motorsport Commission, leaving her post and was followed by Steve Nielsen resigning from his position as sporting director within the FIA’s single-seater department and then Tim Goss leaving the equivalent technical director role.
A replacement for Nielsen has at least now been found, with Tim Malyon being appointed as the new sporting director and meaning the FIA has avoided a period without someone in the role.
Malyon worked at Red Bull Racing from 2005 to 2014 as an engineer, then moved to sister company Red Bull Technologies for 2015 to work more closely alongside the team’s engine supplier Renault.
In 2016 he switched allegiances to Sauber to become its head of track engineering, but held the role for less than half a year before leaving the team and joining BMW to work as their chief DTM engineer. At the end of 2016 he was promoted to the position that he had previously held at Sauber, and that meant he was now working in Formula E and endurance racing.
His time at BMW came to an end in February 2019, and shortly after he was hired by the FIA as its head of research. Since September 2021 he has been its safety director, and alongside that has performed the operational duties of project leader at the FIA’s Remote Operations Centre [ROC] in Geneva since May 2022.
He will continue his ROC work this year, and report to the FIA’s single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis who remains in his job.
“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,” said Malyon. “We’re 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.”