Drowning in Controversy, FIA President Ben Sulayem Justifies His $20 Billion F1 Twitter Scandal

Ever since he was elected FIA president in December 2021, Mohammed Ben Sulayem has been embroiled in controversies. The most recent controversy pertains to his recent explanation for last year’s Tweets regarding the F1 rights sale to Saudi Arabia. According to Motorsports.total, the FIA president has now discussed the issue for the first time.

While explaining his intention to interfere in the matter, Sulayem said, “It wasn’t my intention to upset anyone. My tweet was just a personal assessment. I also wrote ‘allegedly’. But they fired back with dirt and I found that unnecessary. I don’t understand why I was attacked like that. ”  

A few months ago, Ben Sulayem faced the public wrath of F1 rights holder Liberty Media because of some of his online posts. The 62-year-old made a controversial statement in response to media speculations that Saudi Arabia could purchase the F1 rights for an estimated $20 billion.

In response to such rumors, he described the price tag of F1 as “inflated“. F1 and Liberty Media did not take his posts kindly as it damaged the reputation of the sport. Subsequently, the FIA guaranteed that it would not undertake any action that may impact the commercial rights.

Following Sulayem’s remarks, F1 witnessed a dip in its share price as it fell from $70.52 to $69.80. Since then, Ben Sulayem has found himself in even more controversies.

What is the recent allegation against Mohammed Ben Sulayem?

Recently, the BBC reported that a whistleblower had told the FIA that Mohammed Ben Sulayem had tried to influence the decision of Fernando Alonso’s penalty during the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. As per compliance officer Paolo Basarri, the whistleblower revealed that Sulayem expected “the stewards to overturn their decision“.

Sulayem allegedly intervened after the stewards had handed Alonso a 10-second time penalty for failing to serve a five-second penalty earlier. The Spaniard received the previous penalty because, during his pit stop, he was out of position in the box.

#F1 | Mohammed Ben Sulayem: FIA President under investigation for alleged attempt to interfere over a race result.

A whistleblower has told the FIA that Ben Sulayem allegedly intervened to overturn a penalty given to Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso at the 2023 Saudi Arabian… pic.twitter.com/FBvg6DUvna

— deni (@fiagirly) March 4, 2024

Aston Martin then contested the 10-second penalty, arguing that their jackman had permission to touch the vehicles and that this isn’t the same as “working” on the cars while serving their penalty. Interestingly, the team also demonstrated similar incidents occurring in the past to the stewards.

This, in turn, prompted the stewards to ultimately overturn their decision. However, the ethics committee are yet to release their final report on the matter.

Now, even the FIA have expressed their concerns with the matter. A spokesperson from the governing body said (as quoted by Reuters), “It is unfortunate and a source of concern that the matter has been disclosed to the media without any prior authorization and that certain elements of the report were inaccurately reported”.