Ben Sulayem-led FIA lose key personnel as his feedback was not being listened to
FIA has lost their Sporting Director Steve Nielsen right after losing their Head of Commission of Women.
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Mohammed Ben Sulayem (via IMAGO)
As the rule-making body of Formula One as well as the junior racing categories, the FIA have received quite some flack recently for several reasons. They have been on the receiving end of the fans’ criticism right from when Lewis Hamilton‘s potential 2021 World Championship win was allegedly sabotaged by the decisions taken by former FIA Race Director Michael Masi. The Australian was later compelled to exit his role amidst huge controversies. Now, FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has also been at the centre of some arguments since most of the drivers and the teams are not happy with his ways.
On December 13 following the end of the racing season, the FIA saw Deborah Mayer stepping down from her role as the Head of the Commission for Women. An even bigger departure awaits the FIA as Steve Nielsen, who assumed office as the FIA Sporting Director only in January, 2023, will resign from his position. The Bristol native brought his enormous experience working with teams like Tyrell, Benetton, and Williams F1 while joining the FIA for the same role that he had at the Liberty Media from 2017 to 2022. But unfortunately, the BBC have reported Nielsen will be hanging up his boots after only one season with the FIA.
The reports that have emerged regarding Steve Nielsen’s FIA exit claim that he is quite “unhappy” as the “FIA was not willing” to pay any heed to the feedback he wanted them to incorporate in F1. The same account also claimed that the racers of the pinnacle of motorsports had quite backed Nielsen’s position as the Sporting Director in the FIA. Now that he is stepping down, the teams and their drivers will be “dismayed” and “concerned” too.
FIA stepped on the wrong foot by launching investigation into Toto Wolff following blatant allegations
The F1 season ended with Max Verstappen being crowned a three-time World Champion and Red Bull claiming their second World Constructors’ title in a row, but the action did not end there at all. In the days that followed, a burning claim by the BusinessF1 magazine incriminated Toto Wolff and his wife Susie of being privy to the confidential affairs of the Formula One Management. This led to the FIA placing the Wolffs under investigation for alleged ‘conflict of interests’ as both of them are employees under the FOM.
Susie Wolff met the news of the FIA’s investigation with a vehement statement from her end that called their misogyny into question. She claimed that the baseless claims against her were rooted in misogyny and also denied being at all involved in any conflict of interests with the FOM. Soon afterwards, the investigation was suddenly dropped. But the Scottish former racer maintained that she would find out who gave rise to the allegations against her and her husband before letting this case rest.
Thus, the FIA have not been seeing eye to eye with one of Formula 1’s biggest and most successful teams. During the ongoing scuffle between the rule-making body of F1 and the Mercedes authority, the other teams came out with identical statements denying the fact that any of them complained against Toto Wolff and Susie Wolff. The entire matter took an ugly turn in the end, and as the FIA failed to come up with any evidence to solidify the allegations against the Wolffs, they had to drop the case entirely.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)