I am excited to begin the 2018 season by announcing the arrival of Dieter Rencken as F1 Fanatic’s new columnist.

Dieter will bring F1 Fanatic readers fresh news from the paddock, exclusive interviews with the sport’s major players plus his unrivalled insight into the political and economic realities of motorsport.

Dieter has worked with Autosport since the early nineties and F1 Racing for the past ten years. His weekly columns have become a must-read for those who want to inside story on the biggest developments in Formula One. Joining F1 Fanatic will bring Dieter’s work, which was previously behind a paywall, to a new and wider audience.

Several of the biggest F1 news stories of 2017 were broken by Dieter. These included the end of McLaren’s relationship with Honda, which also brought about Carlos Sainz Jnr’s move to Renault, as well as Force India’s new title sponsor and dramatic new colour scheme.

His years of experience in the paddock and deep knowledge of F1’s complex finances means he is uniquely placed to inform fans about the changes which shape their favourite sport. There is no better example of this than the unequal payment structure between Formula One Management and the teams, a subject which Dieter has drawn much attention to.

This will be a crucial year for Formula One following its change of ownership. The new owners are committed to expanding and modernising the sport and have shown they are unafraid to challenge convention. F1 fans are eager to understand their plans and F1 Fanatic will continue to be an independent voice for them.

This is only the beginning of F1 Fanatic’s plans for 2018. I look forward to sharing more details with you in the months ahead.

I will leave it to Dieter to expand on his reasons for joining us at this time in the first of his columns for F1 Fanatic, which will be published on Wednesday. In the meantime I hope you’ll all join me in welcoming the newest member of our F1 Fanatic community: @DieterRencken.

Go ad-free for just £1 per month >> Find out more and sign up