Will it be wise for the F1 to cut ties with FIA over issues with Mohammed Ben Sulayem?
The FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has been at the centre of a lot of controversies lately, the most recent being his scuffle with Toto Wolff and his wife Susie Wolff.
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Mohammed Ben Sulayem (via Twitter)
In the recent times, there have been extensive problems involving Formula One and its governing body–the FIA. Presided over by Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the FIA have the sole authority of making the rules that make sure the Formula 1 Grands Prix are held smoothly. Yet, lately, the F1 world has seen more of a mess than order thanks to the FIA. And considering the very recent incidents involving them and the Mercedes Boss Toto Wolff and his wife, it can very well be said that the FIA are currently walking on very thin ice.
Ever since attaining the position of the FIA President, Ben Sulayem has only known controversy. Soon after being elected, he announced his support to bringing back the formerly ousted Race Director Michael Masi even though the Australian had struck the nerve of most F1 fans due to his flawed decision making at the 2021 season finale in Abu Dhabi. Then, came the surprising news in the following year that the FIA had planned for a record-breaking 24-race season in 2023. This had even come off as a surprise for the Formula One Management as well as the teams who reportedly grew discontent, as per The Guardian.
Again, in 2023, the controversies hardly saw a pause as Ferrari publicly bashed the FIA for imposing a penalty on Carlos Sainz at the Las Vegas GP. He was penalized for getting reparations in his car which got disastrously damaged due to the negligence of the FIA stewards. And then came the saga of the Wolffs versus the FIA. All of this only leads to the question of whether the FOM will actually severe ties with the FIA anytime soon all thanks to Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s jeopardized reign.
Toto Wolff and Susie Wolff’s stance against FIA involves legalities that seen troublesome
It will perhaps only take another fallout between them and one of the teams to cause F1 to cut ties with their rule-making body–and somehow, President Mohammed Ben Sulayem seems to be at the root of this grave problem. When he was elected for his post in December 2021 for a 4-year-long term, the 61 year old entered an office that was already being blown up due to the controversial ending to Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen’s F1 2021 Championship title fight.
At the start of the 2023 season came Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s most problematic statment claiming ‘the alleged inflated price tags of $20bn being put on F1’. The FOM and Liberty Media, the American corporation that currently holds ownership of F1, dismissed Ben Sulayem’s comments as ‘unacceptable’, indicating growing tension between them and the FIA. And then, at the end of 2023, happened the Toto Wolff and Susie Wolff fiasco. The FIA announced out of the blue that they would be in estimating F1’s power couple for ‘conflict of interests’ based on seemingly meaningless allegations.
Susie Wolff reacted to the news of the investigation in the most vehement way. And once the FIA called off their search, she vowed to not rest until the instigator was found out. And Toto Wolff released his own statment claiming that he was in dialogue with the legal team to dig into the matter and see what comes out. All of this further proves that the FIA have now run into trouble with two of the most influential people in the sport at present. This brings us to the burning question of whether F1 would cut off the FIA from its dealings in the future–and the answer would be: it will all be seen in due course of time. Such a big organization cannot run without a rule-making body, so even if the FIA are ousted, another committee must be constructed.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)