“Straight Into the Pockets of MBS”: Fans Target FIA President Over $8,500 Alex Albon Fine

The financial penalties saga in F1 reignited at the 2025 Bahrain GP, and this time it was once again a Williams driver who was penalized. However, unlike Carlos Sainz’s fine for coming late to the national anthem in Japan, his teammate Alex Albon received a fine for a much more serious on-track incident that could have turned into something dangerous.

Williams had put their Academy driver Luke Browning into Sainz’s car for an FP1 outing, and on one of his out laps, he encountered Albon‘s car on the downhill turn to turn eight. There was another car of Felipe Drugovich in Browning’s line of sight before Albon’s car, which was further down the road.

While Browning tried to avoid Drugovich’s Aston Martin, he almost ran into Albon’s car, avoiding it by a split second. Had it not been for his quick reflexes, both Williams cars would’ve collided and suffered a massive damage bill.

But the FIA stewards did not see it the same way, as they deemed it was an effective impeding violation by Albon. So, Williams‘ coffers were hit by the FIA’s penalty of $8,500 (€7,500), which is strange, given the two cars involved were of the same team.

Naturally, this instance has given fans ammunition to target the FIA about its increased tendency to fine drivers. There has been this discourse in the F1 community about where this money collected via such fines goes. One Redditor commented that it goes “straight into the pockets of mbs,” referring to the FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

While these amounts, which are around $5,000 to $10,000, may look less for F1 teams, relative to their budget, multiple such fines could accumulate into a significant amount for the FIA. It was Ben Sulayem who tightened the leash with the swearing saga under the spotlight last year.

Therein, the fine range is higher, from $45,000 to $130,000. Naturally, drivers would not be happy if they have to shell out such amounts of fines every other weekend for some or the other infringement.

While it was all banter by the fans, they did hit a nerve about Ben Sulayem and FIA’s increased tendency to fine drivers. Another user commented on Reddit, “Albon paid for MBS’s dinner tonight”.

“I honestly find this absolutely disgusting. The greed is so blatant. F**k MBS,” @MC_Pen2More wrote.

All in all, there is immense unrest among the entire F1 community about such fines against drivers. And even after the GPDA’s efforts in demanding transparency, they haven’t received the desired response.

The FIA’s financial penalties are ramping up

It was Max Verstappen’s swearing saga during last year’s Singapore GP when the whole debate around the FIA penalizing drivers for trivial things such as using expletive language was raised. While the Dutchman got a community service penalty for that incident, Charles Leclerc later received a fine for swearing in an official presser in Mexico.

Since then, the FIA has officially released updated guidelines and a framework of penalties for multiple offenses of swearing and misconduct during official media sessions and press conferences.

When the GPDA wrote an open letter asking the FIA to be transparent on these fine calculations and where this money goes, the governing body did not reciprocate accordingly. In fact, Ben Sulayem personally gave statements in the media and refuted the claims against the FIA’s lack of transparency and the trivial nature of fines.

When asked by Motorsport.com how they decide upon the fines and where the collected money goes, he said, “None of their [the drivers’] business. Sorry.”

“But okay, you want to know how much we paid in grassroots? I’ll give you: 10.3 million [euro] we invested in grassroots last year. I think that’s a lot of money. In ’24, up to now, over 10 million. Back in grassroots, in karting,” he added to draw a line under the matter.

Nevertheless, it doesn’t justify the FIA not collaborating with the GPDA to give them a transparent understanding of these fines. So, until they play coy on this matter, the whole saga will linger on in the paddock whenever such fines are doled out.