Just as we thought it was safe to go out in the paddock with the Formula One war between FOM and the FIA having quietened down, Mohammed Ben Sulayem is about to upset Liberty media and the teams once again. His first act of antagonism just weeks into his tenure was to fine Lewis Hamilton for refusing to attend the FIA end of season prize gala. 

Ben Sulayem appears to be a stickler for the rules – both old and new – as shortly after the Hamilton punishment he insisted the F1 stewards fully enforce a ten year old rule which forbids drivers from wearing jewellery in the cockpit of their cars. There had been a couple of instances of punishment being meted out for this issue in other racing categories but not F1.

Off course Lewis being the most bling of all the drivers immediately took exception to this clampdown, claiming he was being victimised. Mercedes were even fined for completing the driver homologation forms in incorrectly and the matter was only resolved when Hamilton produced a sick note from a doctor stating it would require a medical procedure for him to remove his piercing related jewellery.

 

 

 

FIA president kicks off with FOM

Ben then upset the owners of F1’s commercial rights following a report in Bloomberg which suggested Liberty media were considering a $20bn offer from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund claiming it would affect the fans access to F1 in terms of higher ticket prices and less affordable entry fees. He tweeted “Any potential buyer is advised to apply common sense, consider the greater good of the sport and come with a clear, sustainable plan – not just a lot of money.”

“It is our duty to consider what the future impact will be for promoters in terms of increased hosting fees and other commercial costs, and any adverse impact that it could have on fans,” he concluded.

With lightening speed Liberty Media’s lawyers issued a ‘cease and desist’ instruction to the FIA president calling out his “unacceptable remarks,” and reminding Ben Sulayem that the FIA “may be liable as a result” of any financial loss they may suffer.

The instruction observed the role of the FIA in Formula One was regulatory only and with regards to commercial matters, Ben Sulayem was overstepping his remit. The it was time for the dirty tricks playbook to be dusted down. A report emerged that the FIA president had made derisory and sexist comments about women way back in 2001.

The end of an era: Big revision to Monaco GP

 

 

 

Ben Sulayem accused of sexism

Whilst the web page was no longer visible to the average Joe public, Ben was alleged to have claimed he did “not like women who think they are smarter than men.” No further action was taken to pursue the matter, but a very large shot had been fired across the bows of Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

Next up the FIA president took it upon himself to promote the addition of an eleventh team to the F1 grid and with Andretti Racing already lurking at the paddock gates, this infuriated the teams and FOM who between them would have to fund the additional price money which would run to some $100m when all was said and done.

A detailed application process was opened by the FIA for an eleventh team, with the result after thorough deliberations that Andretti was given the green light to join the F1 grid. The existing teams were miffed because the recently signed Concorde Agreement allowed for addition teams to join for the paltry fee of $200m.

Guenther Steiner, then Haas F1 team principal,  was used by his colleagues to lead the charge to suggest this was no longer relevant and in fact the fee should be somewhere in the region of $650m. Further, Christian Horner and Toto Wolff propagated the notion that any team joining the sport should add value, and Andretti did not do that.

McLaren’s huge gamble on their 2025 car design

 

 

 

The Andretti pawn

Andretti quickly rounded up support from one of the biggest auto manufacturers in the world and announced they would be joining F1 in association with the Cadillac brand.

Yet FOM and Liberty Media predictably rejected the Andretti application several months later, although their reasoning appeared to be flaky. They claimed they had emailed Andretti to invite them to a meeting but the F1 hopefuls stated they had never seen the communication – the old ‘lost in the post’ excuse claimed FOM.

One of the pre-conditions which Andretti failed to meet according to FOM was that they would be an “operational burden” on a number of race promoters with their limited facilities. Zandvoort became the Red Bull bosses favourite circuit to cite over this matter, where the paddock is tight and has no room to be expanded.

The most silly of the arguments presented by FOM was that, “we do not believe that the applicant would be a competitive participant.” REALLY? Did anyone check out the results of the likes of Williams and Sauber? The latter has never won an F1 race and the former’s last victory was with Pastor Maldonado in Spain more than a decade earlier.

Red Bull had a better option than Liam Lawson: ‘Should have gone for him’

 

 

 

Formula One gets an 11th team

Behind the scenes the US Justice department was engaged over the issue, with some believing it was Ben Sulayem who provided them with information suggesting F1 was in breach of US Federal competition laws. In fact the NFL had been recently fined a whopping $4.7bn for breach of the anti-trust code, something clearly the money men at Liberty did not want to happen to them.

In a week, Michael Andretti resigned from the team set to design and build their car. The team was renamed Cadillac and Liberty Media’s lawyer ws sacked along with chairman Fred Maffei. Now Cadillac were in, although in the several months since this decision was made, no commercial agreement has been announced with the likes of Horner and Wolff insisting “we’re not paying for it!”

Meanwhile Ben has been busy elsewhere, upsetting the drivers by comparing them to “rappers” with their potty mouths allegedly upsetting five year old children who are watching official FIA presss conferences. Most F1 fans don’t watch these tedious events where the press appear to have little training in investigatory journalism, asking predictable and often silly questions like ‘how do you feel at this your home grand prix.’ 

Max Verstappen was the first to fall down of the new clampdown on swearing, as the poor old F1 stewards were again tasked with issuing a punishment which made a statement of intent. The drivers were incensed and for once united as they all signed a letter to Mohammed Ben Sulayem telling him to stop treating them like children.

Hamilton’s replacement speaks out

 

 

 

F1 Drivers now upset with FIA president

“We urge the FIA President to also consider his own tone and language when talking to our member drivers, or indeed about them, whether in a public forum or otherwise. Further, our members are adults, they do not need to be given instructions via the media, about matters as trivial as the wearing of jewellery and underpants,” the commune read.

The reference to underpants was because one of the drivers had made a joke about his lucky underwear, which sent Ben into a meltdown issuing orders to the F1 stewards to ensure only officially sanctioned fireproof pants were to be allowed. They were clearly upset about being refereed to as rappers, although Lewis Hamilton with his fledging music career underway was less upset about the swearing but incensed over the cultural appropriation implied by the president of the FIA.

Again whether the five year old at home watching the F1 news understands the issue of cultural appropriation, is questionable. So as is his want, Ben is now trying to have the last word on the matter as new regulations came into force over there swearing matter just three weeks ago. Should a driver be sanctioned three times in a rolling twelve month period for this terrible sin, they will receive a whopping ONE MONTH ban for their lack of consideration of all the five year olds around the planet.

Predictably the drivers are very unhappy about this ‘dagger they see before them,’ and their spokesman Alex Worry has already indicated this is unacceptable. When asked whether the new penalties had been discussed with the F1 gladiators he replied to assembled media, “No, there was no consultation, we have read that through the media.”

Hamilton stab at Mercedes

 

 

 

Ben Sulayem starts a new F1 war

Wurz called for “improvement” in the way the FIA make decisions which concern the drivers and how they are communicated. “If there’s a comparison with, for example, the NFL in America, they do have unionisation of NFL players, and they are involved in the process.

“In this case, we are not involved. I’m not sure if the FIA has involved their own FIA drivers’ commission. That’s something I don’t know about,” he concluded.

Clearly not happy with his victory over FOM via the long reach of the US Justice Departments investigation into the anticompetitive practices of F1, Ben is now doing a victory lap – and to mix metaphors – dancing on the graves of FOM’s chief lawyers career along with Greg Maffei.

Today the president of the FIA has decided that the existing regulations in fact allow for a twelfth F1 team on the grid. Speaking to French publisher La Figaro he reveals: “It’s been my dream for the last two years that the big countries should have a presence in Formula 1.” 

McLaren controversy

 

 

 

CHI – NA to have F1 team

With Cadillac now ‘representing’ the USA, Ben believes the largest manufacturing country of motor vehicles in the world, Chi – Na, should be offered the opportunity of of giving their 1 billion citizens the chance to cheer for a national F1 team. “The next step is to welcome a Chinese manufacturer. We already have a driver,” said the FIA president referring to Zhou Guanyu.

Yet a closer examination of the entry list for this year by our proverbial five year old, will show that Kick Sauber have sacked Zhou for not being very good. Further, it is believed the Uyghur population in China have a particular soft spot for F1. Of course this would require the modification of around 1 million jail cells for them, so they can watch their favourite driver –  whilst they work 18 hours a day manufacturing clothes for consumption at bargain prices in the West.

Of course Ben Sulayem did stress that it must be a Chinese team with quality: “Should we think in terms of quantity or quality? We need quality teams.” This is awfully close to and argument used by his arch enemy Liberty Media, when deciding Andretti were not coming through the F1 paddock doors.

The news has yet to reach the White House, but with president Trump attending the biggest event in the NASCAR calendar, today at Daytona, some bright spark motorsports fan may be able to inform him of CHI-NA gate crashing F1. It could be once again the long arm of the US Justice Department is engaged to challenge another F1 decision – But this time it is one taken by the FIA.

Tin foil hat time folks!

 

 

 

First team boss addresses ONE month F1 bans for drivers

Franco Colapinto took Formula One by storm as Williams gave him his big break replacing Logan Sargeant with nine Grand Prix remaining last season. The Floridian was in his second year with the Grove based team and failed to earn a single point bar the one he inherited at the 2023 US Grand Prix.

Whilst Logan was the first US born driver to claim an F1 point in 30 years, he crossed the line at COTA in twelfth position. However, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were disqualified post race for a technical infringement which meant their cars had too much wear on the plank which sits underneath the car.

The width of the skid block, as it’s officially called, is used as a gauge by which the minimum ride height of the car is measured. Mercedes and Ferrari had set up these two cars too low in an effort to increase the downforce created by the new ground effect car designs…. READ NMORE