Mohammed Ben Sulayem declares ‘new blood’ to enter FIA after controversial 2024 F1 season
Mohammed Ben Sulayem revealed that Formula 1 was looking into appointing multiple race directors from the 2025 season onwards.
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FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem (via IMAGO)
Formula 1 will undergo massive changes in the 2025 season, especially within FIA and stewards. The sport and the FIA have continued to work together to ensure that the controversies of 2024 are not repeated again. For this, Mohammed Ben Sulayem confirmed that the sport will appoint ‘multiple’ race directors during races.
Niels Wittich, the infamous race director was recently fired from his role due to multiple controversial situations during races in 2024. Hence, to tackle the issues of biased decisions during races, Mohammed Ben Sulayem noted that the sport would appoint multiple race directors for the same race. Ben Sulayem highlighted that the final decision would be revealed soon. The Emirati also confirmed that ‘new blood’ would be entering the sport to govern the races.
Who and how many is a question we will know soon, in the next few days. But for sure there will be new blood and there will be more than one [race director]. That’s for sure.
Mohammed Ben Sulayem told Planetf1.com.
Ben Sulayem asserted that multiple people were learning the ways of race directing behind the scenes. The 63-year-old claimed that a person couldn’t directly jump into governing the races. The Emirati revealed that the governing body was working for over two years to implement multiple race directors. Hence, the benefit of the new decision would be visible only after it has been implemented.
There have been people learning, there have been people working behind all the time. You can’t just throw somebody into this big challenge. It has taken us more than two and a half years to get to what we are achieving now. Do we have the results? We will know the results when the season starts.
Mohammed Ben Sulayem added
Mohammed Ben Sulayem reveals the reason for ‘lack of women’ in the FIA
Formula 1, despite being at the pinnacle of motorsport lacks equality. Speaking about the lack of women in the governing body, Mohammed Ben Sulayem asserted that women were hired based on merit and credibility. Moreover, the Emirati highlighted that non-European people were appointed because of their passion to compete, not to force any religion or color in the sport.
We don’t have women because we have to take 30 percent, we take women on the basis of merit and credibility because they are good. We hire non-European people from other countries because they are good, they are trained, they have the passion to compete, not because I have to have this colour, this religion.
Mohammed Ben Sulayem noted
The FIA’s condition will be improved a lot if Mohammed Ben Sulayem starts to take in opinions from the people on the paddock. The coming season will be extremely exciting as multiple major changes are in order. Time will tell about how the new decision to appoint multiple race directors pans out for the sport.
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Aditya Pandya
(1516 Articles Published)