'He ticks the boxes' - F1 teams back Nielsen to fix FIA’s problems

The FIA announced on Wednesday it has hired F1 veteran Nielsen from FOM to take the role of sporting director, working directly underneath Nikolas Tombazis, who has been given a new position that puts him in overall charge of the FIA’s F1 operations. 

Nielsen will oversee race-control operations and be tasked with fixing the FIA’s race-management problems that have plagued F1 in recent years. 

The reshuffle follows a review of the FIA’s internal procedures instigated by president Mohammed Ben Sulayem. 

58-year-old Nielsen joined F1 in 2017 following a long career working as a sporting director for several teams, including at the rebranded Alpine for more than a decade. 

It is hoped Nielsen’s experience will help improve the issues that have overshadowed F1 since Charlie Whiting’s death on the eve of the 2019 season. 

Whiting’s replacement, Michael Masi, was removed as race director following his mishandling of a late Safety Car period at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. 

Masi’s failure to apply the rules correctly altered the outcome of the world championship, controversially denying Lewis Hamilton a record-breaking eighth drivers’ title and enabling Max Verstappen to claim his maiden crown. 

Masi was replaced by Eduardo Freitas and Niels Wittich, who alternated the role for 2022, but problems persisted. 

Notable errors included a botched start procedure at Monaco, a controversial finish at Monza, a crane being sent onto the track amid heavy rain and poor visibility in Japan and confusion over the points system which overshadowed Verstappen’s coronation, while drivers were left frustrated at a series of inconsistent stewards’ decisions. 

But there is cause for optimism among the teams that Nielsen’s appointment, as well as the revised structure, will bring much-needed improvements. 

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown told BBC Sport: “Steve is immensely respected, very well known and has a relationship with everyone in the pit lane.

"In roles like that, do they have the technical skillset? Yes. Do they have the credibility and relationships? Yes. 

“So he ticks the boxes where I don't think a single team will be questioning the decision and the rationale.”

Meanwhile, Haas team principal Guenther Steiner said: "It's fantastic that F1 made him available because he has been in F1 so long, so he knows a lot of history of what happened in different situations.

"That is the biggest thing that some of the people who came in missed - the history of the last 20 years. It is very difficult to teach.

"The guys who are doing it are not bad people, but they just don't have the experience. If you try to learn 30 years of history of rule-making, that takes a few years and we expect these guys to go in the seat and make the right decisions.

"They don't know what they don't know, while Steve knows a lot of stuff, what happened when. It's better to have this not to create controversies."