FIA President under investigation for F1 race result interference
FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem is under investigation for allegedly interfering with the results of last year’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, in which he is said to have overturned a post-race penalty against Fernando Alonso.
According to BBC Sport, a whistleblower recently made the FIA aware of the incident, seeing the claim form part of an official report made by an FIA compliance officer to the motorsport’s governing body’s ethics committee.
The report constructed by Paolo Basarri, FIA Compliance Officer, details that Ben Sulayem “pretended the stewards to overturn their decision to issue” the 10-second penalty to Alonso.
Originally published in Italian, the word “pretendere” translated to ‘to pretend’, however, with the meaning ‘to expect/demand’.
As indicated by the whistleblower, Ben Sulayem allegedly called Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the FIA’s vice-president for sport for the Middle East and North Africa, who was working at the Saudi Arabian GP that weekend to make it clear that he thought Alonso’s penalty should be nullified.
Mohammed Ben Sulayem congratulates Fernando Alonso after Qualifying at the Bahrain GP last weekend. Image: Mark Sutton / Sutton Images.
The penalty in question was a 10-second penalty given to the Spaniard for work done on his car whilst serving a previously dealt five-second penalty.
Prior to the penalty being revoked, the 10-second addition to his race time would have knocked Alonso off the podium, sending him back behind George Russell in P4.
Instead, the #14 finished on the podium for the second time in the first two rounds, taking home the third-place trophy for Aston Martin.
Ben Sulayem has been the FIA President since December 2021, and not without controversy.
The FIA President has found himself in hot water on many occasions including, but not limited to:
- Halting an agreement between teams and the commercial rights holder to double the number of sprint weekends per season for six months.
- Being on the receiving end of a “cease-and-desist” letter from F1’s lawyers after a public reaction on social media to an article claiming Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund had attempted to buy the sport for $20bn.
- And, the revelation of misogynistic remarks made by Ben Sulayem resurfacing in old quotes.
The most recent controversy Ben Sulayem has been involved in was the highly publicised compliance investigation made by the FIA into the Wolffs in 2023.
A conclusion to the investigation is expected to be made in the next four to six weeks, with all parties yet to make comment on the situation.
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