Mohammed Ben Sulyamen will be remembered for his rule at the HQ of the FIA in the place de Concorde. The president was unanimously voted in as head of the organisation by over 200 national member associations. His mandate was to return the FIA to its members with the inherent message that Formula One was not the only administrative function the FIA delivers.

Yet unlike his predecessor Jean Todt, who at times was invisible when the ructions broke out in Formula One, Ben Sulayem has chosen to be front and centre almost in an effort to rival Stefano Domenicali, who as CEO of FOM under Liberty Media is credited with taking the sport forward in leaps and bounds.

The Emirati ex-rally driver inherited a hot potato on day one. His presidency was confirmed just days before the 2021 showdown in the Abu Dhabi desert, when race director Michael Massi gave some unusual safety car restart instructions. The result being Mercedes Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton boycotted the end of season FIA gala, just days after the season finale which saw Hamilton miss out on a record eight F1 drivers’ title.

 

 

 

Ben Sulayem first job to fine Hamilton

The team boss of the winning constructor and the top three drivers’ are mandated by FIA regulations to attend the event and so first on Ben Sulayem’s list of things to do was to issue fines, something the Hamfosi were enraged over.

Hamilton of course went dark on social media for almost eight weeks after the disappointment of Abu Dhabi, but when he returned for pre-season testing in Abu Dhabi he conceded he would be paying €50,000 and it had been agreed “the money will be put towards youth from underprivileged backgrounds getting into motorsports engineering.”

Yet this was a mere storm in a team cup given what was to come for Ben Sulayem. Within weeks of ‘Gala-gate’ F1 was became engulfed in ’underpants-gate’ as the FIA president sought to tighten up the stewarding around regulations which were not being enforced.

By the third race of the 2022 season, the new pair of F1 race directors were finding their feet and Neils Wittich had warned the drivers at their briefing against wearing underwear of jewellery that do not comply with the safety regulations that are part of the International Sporting Code.

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FIA demand the correct F1 underpants

Come Miami, this Fia felt the need to issue an amendment to the scrutineering form the teams must fill in before the cars and drivers are declared legal to compete for the weekend. It stated that checks on banned jewellery and underwear will now be part of the formal scrutineering process on race weekends.

It had come to light that certain drivers were using ‘lucky’ underpants made form synthetic materials which pose a threat to driver safety in the event of a fire. Further, body piercings or metal chains, rings and bracelets the drivers were reminded were also banned for safety reasons.

Of course the F1 drivers appeared to take this as a personal attack, yet back in 2018 Audi FE driver, Lucas di Grassi was fined €10,000 for wearing non-compliant underwear. On the jewellery front, Lewis Hamilton took the fight to the FIA president. The matter dragged on week after week until Mercedes were fined for failing to disclose – on their pre-scrutineering form – the exact jewellery Hamilton would be wearing whilst driving the car.

Lewis finally produced a doctors note which stated he would need to suffer from a painful medical procedure to remove his nose piercing, and the matter appeared to drift into the ether as the F1 paddock waited for the next FIA induced crisis.

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Verstappen pushes the new swearing limit

Mohammed Ben Sulayem again hit the headlines ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix when he demanded F1 drivers understand they are role models and cut down on the gratuitous swearing. He suggested they were behaving like rappers who9 “say the F-word how many times per minute? We are not on that. That’s them and we are [us].”

Given Lewis Hamilton’s proclivity for making friends in this sector of the music business it was predictable it would be the seven times world champion who take the lead on pushing back against Ben Sulayem. He accused the FIA president of using racist stereotypes and “with what he’s saying, I don’t like how he’s expressed it, saying that rappers is very stereotypical,” Hamilton said.

“So I think those are the wrong choice of words, there’s a racial element there,” yet Lewis did conclude there was an element of truth in the drivers modifying their language in certain environments. Clearly ax Verstappen was having non-of this and in is first FIA press conference one the Thursday before the Singapore weekend, decided to push the boundaries and see what if anything new may happen.

Clearly, behind the scenes the stewards had been briefed and following his appearance at the FIA press event, the world champion was summonsed to the stewards office. There he was hit with an eye catching and exam please making penalty of community service, which most other drivers disagreed with.

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ONE MONTH swearing ban introduced

Next time out in the USA, Charles Leclerc was fined €10,000 for swearing in the same Thursday FIA press conference, although he immediately recanted citing Verstappen’s punishment as one he hoped to avoid.

Ahead of the new 2025 season, the FIA have revealed the amendments to the international Sporting Code which come into force in a handful of weeks. Driver will now be fined three times the maximum for other racing categories, and a first strike bad language offence will now collect the modest fine of some €40,000.

This will be doubled on the second strike of the year and tripled for the third, before a massive ONE MONTH BAN is ordered, clearly Ben Sulayem believes the sledgehammer is more powerful than the carrot.

Ex-F1 driver and team mate to Michael Schumacher, now Sky F1 pundit – Martin. Brundle – has now weighed in on the big news from yesterday regarding the new swear box penalties in force.

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Brundle defends FIA

“I think we’re role models, F1 drivers are role models. You don’t need to gratuitously swear in a press conference, whatever,” he said. “In the heat of the moment, in the car, full of adrenaline, full of despair, happiness, whatever, I get it completely.

“But personally, it doesn’t feel right to me. What I love about Rugby is how they respect the referee and I think Formula 1 should be the same, because you’re role models for all the drivers coming through.”

Brundle goes on to cite examples where these kinds of penalties he believes to be appropriate although he assumes the being dirty on track and breaching track limits is an exact science – which it clearly is not. The response which describes the FIA officials as “idiots” or “stupid” Brundle believes to be appropriate instances outside an FIA approved press event, where the fines wold be appropriate.

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First F1 driver banned for a month….

“I mean there are degrees of this and how heavy-handed you want to be is a whole new story. But I don’t mind there being some rules of our Formula 1 drivers who are great kids being role models. I’m calm with that,” Brundle concludes. Yet he failed to address the elephant in the room of the one month ban.

Wherever you’re paddock loyalties lie, this surely is way too heavy handed and could see a driver push the boundaries merely to see if the FIA really have the guts to go through with it.

Kevin Magnussen was the first driver in a decade to be banned last season for accumulating 12 points in less than a rolling twelve month period. The uproar was somewhat mitigated by his replacement being the exciting talent that is Oliver Bearman.

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Russell/Verstappen feud. The latest

The big question on the lips of Formula One fans and pundits alike is, which of Ferrari and McLaren will deliver the best car for the start of the 2025 campaign? Strangely Red Bull Racing are no longer considered in this conversation, yet one thing is for certain Max Verstappen will maximise the performance of whatever his Milton Keynes based team delivers in the shape of a racing car.

The lesson to be learned from last season, is both Ferrari and McLaren must be primed and ready to go from there off in Australia. In 2004, Verstappen won the opening two rounds with ease and would have equalled his record of ten consecutive straight wins in Melbourne but for brake failure causing him to retire after leading the race.

Whilst his seven wins from the first ten races may give the impression the Red Bull car was the quickest early doors, as early as the Emilia-Romagne Grand Prix the data suggests otherwise. Only a stunning final lap in Q3 propelled Max onto pole position which at the circuit called Imola is almost as vital as in Monaco. For there Max’s defensive driving in the Grand Prix ensured Lando Norris could find no way past and the pair took the chequered flag with less than a second between them…. READ MORE