Before this F1 season started, Mohammed Ben Sulayem was accused of interfering with a post-race penalty in the 2023 Saudi Arabian GP. These allegations suggested that he asked the stewards to reverse Fernando Alonso’s five-second post-race penalty. Besides this, Ben Sulayem was also alleged to have overstepped his mark in trying to hold up the safety certificate for the Las Vegas GP the same year. However, the accusations fell barren after the FIA Ethics Committee investigated the allegations and cleared Ben Sulayem last month. Now, another group of FIA member clubs urged and wrote to Ben Sulayem to take legal action over false allegations that were put against him.
27 member region clubs of the Middle East and North Africa and FIA’s sub-region for the Arab Council of Touring and Automobile Clubs, published the latest letter earlier on Friday. In the letter, they wrote per RaceFans, “We strongly encourage the FIA administration to initiate legal actions against those responsible for those allegations against the FIA president.”
With this, the FIA member clubs have written to the FIA President for the third time. Earlier, 33 member clubs from North America and South America along with 13 member clubs from Europe urged the same. They asked that the governing body should not be misused anymore by third parties against the “interests of our organization.”
Responding to the allegations, Ben Sulayem wrote to the FIA members in March that the accusations were aimed against him and the organization as a whole. However, this wasn’t the first time the current FIA president has faced such controversies.
How is Ben Sulayem not new to controversies?
Mohammed Ben Sulayem got himself involved in multiple controversies ever since he sat in the chair as the FIA president. It started right from his tenure in January 2022.
Under his leadership, the FIA termed the controversial ending of the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP as “human error,” and revealed that Masi’s action in that race was not according to the guidelines. Many found this conclusion insubstantial and criticized the body.
Besides this, the FIA under Ben Sulayem got themselves in conflict with F1 over additional sprint races, and Red Bull’s cost cap breach controversy. Most importantly, the FIA restrictions on drivers speaking out on political and social issues sparked massive backlash.
Interestingly, Lewis Hamilton once revealed that he did not have any confidence in Ben Sulayem. This is obvious given how the latter wanted to restrict drivers from speaking out, and Hamilton himself felt troubled by the FIA’s clampdown on jewelry back in 2023.
