Mohammed Ben Sulayem is entering the final few months of his first term as the president of the FIA. Come November the nigh on 200 associations around the world will vote to either replace the Emirati former rally driver or retain him for a second four year term.
Yet for those keen to see the back of the first Arab president of the FIA, history would suggests he is likely to receive a second term. In the past half a century no president has served just a single term and the wining margin which saw Ben Sulayem elected in 2021 was substantial.
Formula One is just one of seven FIA regulated world championships and many of the member associations around the world have little care for what is often described as the pinnacle of motor racing. “Formula One and WRC are in good shape, they are very healthy. But the world needs more than that. I mean, we’re talking about local or regional level, you need local participation, you need local events, and you need regional events. That can only happen if we do it in an affordable way,” stated the manifesto of Ben Sulayem.
Doubling the number of participants in FIA accredited motorsport was a key target for the Emirati who observed that if Finland with a population of 5.5 million people has 11,000 competition license holders, then there is huge development potential in China and India which have only around 4,000 license holders each.
Of course increasing the number of participants who compete at grass roots level is good for the member associations. Simply put there licenses they issued, the greater their funding. Whilst there has been no update on the progress towards this target, transparency and accountability was another pillar of Ben Sulayem’s campaign. Those in F1 will feel this in fact has taken a retrograde step, either the FIA refusing to explain where the ever increasing amount in driver fines are spent, despite an open letter from the drivers demanding they be told.
They further demanded the FIA “stop treating the drivers like children,” stating they were in principle against the fining of the F1 drivers at all. While the teams were busily developing the new cars for 2025, Ben Sulayem was on his hobby horse re-writing the rules regarding his pet hate, drivers using bad language.
Some have read the pursuit of this topic as one which is of cultural significance to Ben Sulayem as in a number of the middle eastern countries, blasphemy is a most serious criminal offence. The revised Article B of the sporting code, quadrupled fines for F1 drivers along with a draconian three strikes and your out for a month penalty.
Article 12.2.1.f ISC now states outlines the offences as follows: “Any words, deeds or writings that have caused moral injury or loss to the FIA, its bodies, its members or its executive officers, and more generally on the interest of motor sport and on the values defended by the FIA.” This is a very broad mandate for the stewards to consider but its primary focus is to provide a basis for punishing the drivers for what is described as bad language.
Further there is definitely a cultural element which is often seen in more authoritarian states which affects both freedom of speech and the principle that offence is in the eye of the offended. Other sections of Article B forbid a “display of political, religious and personal statements or comments notably in violation of the general principle of neutrality promoted by the FIA under its Statutes.”
The three strikes and your’e banned works as follows. The first offence for each driver will be met with a €40,000 fine, the second sees this doubled and a third offence will hit the convicted party’s pocked to the tune of €120,000 along with a one month long ban from FIA accredited motorsports.
Many within the FIA were reportedly unhappy about these changes being implemented without consulting F1 stakeholders and the officials themselves were given little time to discuss the new measures and hurried into a swift e-vote. Yet before there was true media backlash, the esteemed Martin Brundle threw his weight behind the principal that the Formula One drivers need to take responsibility for their behaviour.
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“I think we’re role models, F1 drivers are role models. You don’t need to gratuitously swear in a press conference, in the heat of the moment, in the car, full of adrenaline, full of despair, happiness, whatever – I get it completely.
“I don’t personally [swear] … it doesn’t feel right to me. What I love about rugby is how they respect the referee, and I think F1 should be the same. You’re role models for all the drivers coming through, so if you’re dirty on track, or you’re cheating the track limits, or calling the FIA stewards ‘stupid idiots’ to give you one example.”
This swift intervention appeared to take the immediate heat out of the situation whilst also limiting the scope of the FIA’s reach to when driver’s were speaking in an approved media event. It was a slightly bizarre moment as Brundle was ready with his piece to camera for SKY, just as the news was breaking of the revisions to Article B.
Some may have though this was even orchestrated in some fashion, with F1’s man of the people being wheeled in to diffuse a potentially huge row. The reaction from the drivers was relatively muted, with their GPDA representative George Russell suggesting they were attempting dialogue with the FIA over the matter.
FIA Olive branch
There has been a recent wave of love sweeping the F1 paddock, with the president of the FIA together with Liberty Media officials and Stefano Domenicali all agreeing a return to V8/V10 engines – sooner rather than later – is the next priority for F1. Further, F1’s resistance to the FIA’s green light given to the Andretti F1 application appeared to vanish into thin air with a simple rename of the team to Cadillac.
The latest extraordinary accommodation comes today as President Ben Sulayem offers an Olive branch to the drivers over his draconian rules which would seek to ban for 1 month one of their number. Posting on social media he reveals: “Following constructive feedback received from many drivers competing in the seven FIA championships, I am considering making improvements to Appendix B,” he wrote.
“As a former rally driver, I better understand what the drivers have told me. Appendix B is a key part of the International Sporting Code and is central to helping us ensure that our sport is accessible to all families. Humans make the rules and humans can improve them.”
In a rather self congratulatory tone, Ben Sulayem claims that “continual improvement” is a principle he has brought to various processes operated within the FIA. Yet there are no details as to which changes may be forthcoming, but the post does point to a remarkable shift in position and a return to a more balanced view to the FIA’s role of regulator and policeman.
There was mooted a potential upcoming protest from a number of the F1 drivers, who amusingly were considering using words which would be bleeped out by the F1 broadcast whenever using team radio. A strike was even suggested when the news of the new one month ban first broke, yet it now seems sensibility has for now returned to the Place De Concorde.
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With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
