FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem is reportedly being investigated for allegedly trying to interfere with the outcome of last year’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The 62-year-old has been in charge of world motorsport’s governing body since the end of 2021, when he was elected to replace former president Jean Todt.
Ben Sulayem now appears to be in hot water with reports claiming that he is being probed over an alleged attempt to change the outcome of last year’s race in Saudi Arabia. According to the BBC, a whistleblower has informed the FIA that Ben Sulayem allegedly intervened to overturn a penalty given to Fernando Alonso.
Alonso had been given a 10-second penalty by the stewards for having work done to his car while he was serving a previous five-second penalty. It saw Alonso drop from third to fourth place before the decision was overturned, which reinstated his position in the top three finishers.
The report claims that Ben Sulayem made it clear he thought Alonso’s penalty should be revoked during a conversation with Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamas bin Isa Al Khalifa, the FIA’s vice-president for sport for the Middle East and North Africa. The whistleblower is said to have told the FIA that Ben Sulayem asked the stewards to overturn their decision to issue the penalty to Alonso.
It is also said that a number of senior figures in F1 believe that Ben Sulayem attempted to interfere in the overturning of Alonso’s penalty. The FIA’s ethics committee is thought to have launched an investigation, with a report expected to be issued in around four to six weeks. Express Sport has approached the FIA for comment.
The saga is the latest in a string of controversial incidents to embroil the FIA over the last few years. Last season, the governing body withdrew a compliance inquiry into Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff and his wife Susie regarding claims of an alleged conflict of interest.
The inquiry was widely criticised by Mercedes and the other nine F1 teams, who all said they had not complained about the matter. A few months earlier, Ben Sulayem made the headlines due to alleged sexist comments published on his old website, which stated that he did not like ‘women who think they are smarter than men’.
Ben Sulayem went on to issue a staunch defence of his comments, saying: “What did I say, if I said it? Let’s assume it was [me]. I will tell you exactly what it said. It says: ‘I hate when women think they are smarter than us’. But they hate when men think they are smarter than them.
“Did I say we are smarter? No. Did I say they are less smarter? No. For God’s sake, if that is the only thing they have against me, please be my guest, you can do worse than that.”
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