After the season-opening Bahrain GP, the past two days have unfolded startling revelations of some controversies in F1. While Red Bull is dealing with the Christian Horner saga, even FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has now got some issues to face. BBC reported that a ‘whistleblower’ has complained to the FIA’s ethics committee that Ben Sulayem “allegedly” intervened after the 2023 Saudi Arabian GP to overturn Fernando Alonso’s penalty. Now, less than 24 hours after this came out, BBC has again reported that the same whistleblower claims that the FIA boss was “allegedly” against the Las Vegas GP circuit getting the green signal.
To shed light on the latest report, the whistleblower claimed that the motorsport governing body’s officials were told “‘on behest of the FIA president’ to find a way not to pass the circuit safe for racing”, the BBC reported. Their report further stated how the Las Vegas GP followed all the sporting and safety regulations as per the FIA protocol.
However, as per the whistleblower’s theory, the FIA president allegedly asked to “find some concerns” with the track that could prevent its certification.
Meanwhile, the initial report on Alonso’s penalty intervention refers to the 10-second penalty that the Spaniard got after the race ended in Jeddah last year. It was a chaotic and confusing situation as Aston Martin first lost the podium before retaining it after they contested the stewards’ decision.
Given the Silverstone team claimed that they presented evidence of multiple instances as to how their touching the car while serving the penalty was within the rules, the whistleblower’s theory tells a different tale. However, it is pertinent to note that this is not the only controversy that Ben Sulayem has been involved in.
Controversies around FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem
Mohammed Ben Sulayem has not had the best of stints as the president of the FIA. Ever since he came into power at the end of 2021, the Emirati has faced several controversies. From the cost cap investigation against Red Bull to having allegedly passed misogynistic comments, Ben Sulayem has faced a lot of heat in public forums.
Last year, the FIA president was at the forefront of a tussle with F1’s commercial rights holder – Liberty Media. The 62-year-old had reacted to rumors of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund wishing to buy F1 for a valuation of $20 billion.
Sulayem controversially claimed that he does not want to set any “inflationary” estimations about F1’s valuation since the FIA is a non-profit organization. These remarks unsurprisingly did not go down well with F1 or Liberty Media.
Besides this, when Red Bull received their penalty for their breach of the 2021 budget cap, many suggested whether the FIA penalized them enough or not. The Austrian team got a 10% reduction in wind tunnel time for 12 months and a $7 million monetary fine. F1 team bosses were not happy and claimed that Red Bull got off lightly by the FIA.
That is not it, as Ben Sulayem had reportedly also blocked an agreement between teams and F1 to double the number of sprint weekends in 2023. Apparently, this blocking went on for six months before F1 doubled the sprint weekends from three to six for 2023.
