According to reports, the Emirati attempted to interfere and get Fernando Alonso’s penalty from the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix last year overturned.
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem investigated for ‘attempt to interfere in F1 race result’
The governing body of motorsport is reportedly looking into claims that Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the president of Formula One, attempted to tamper with the outcome of a Formula One race.
According to the BBC, Ben Sulayem allegedly interfered to overturn a penalty imposed to Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin at the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, after a whistleblower informed the FIA of the incident.
The assertion may be found in a report that FIA compliance officer Paolo Basarri submitted to the ethics committee of the governing body; BBC Sport has access to this information.
Requests for response from the FIA have not yet been answered, but Telegraph Sport has learned that the information is accurate from other sources.
In late 2021, Ben Sulayem, a former rally driver from the United Arab Emirates, succeeded Jean Todt as president. He has had a very contentious term.
Following the season-ending 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, in which Max Verstappen won his first world title at the expense of Lewis Hamilton, Ben Sulayem assumed leadership.
The FIA’s handling of that incident led to a huge rupture with Mercedes and specifically their team principal Toto Wolff, with the governing body removing its own race director following what it called a “human error”.
Ben Sulayem has also had a very tense relationship with Liberty Media, the owners of Formula One, blocking an agreement between the teams and the commercial rights holder to treble the number of sprint weekends in 2023 and making disparaging remarks about the sport’s worth.
The 62-year-old stopped participating in the sport on a “day-to-day” basis.
Around this time last year, on the heels of claims of misogyny and bullying against the FIA president, Telegraph Sport released an investigation into the man.
There was also the mishandled incident that occurred during the winter, during which the FIA said it had received complaints about an alleged conflict of interest from rival teams and, as a result, opened a brief inquiry into Wolff and his wife, F1 Academy managing director Susie Wolff.
Two days after all nine of Mercedes’ competitors denied filing a complaint, that investigation was closed. It is known that Susie Wolff and Mercedes are still seeking justice for that.
Wolff expressed his “concernement” at the departure of numerous FIA officials in recent months in an interview with Telegraph Sport in January. The governing body has lost several members: Steve Nielsen, the sporting director; Deborah Mayer, the head of the women’s commission; Tim Goss, the FIA single-seater director; Gerd Ennser, the chairman of the German motorsport authority, the ADAC, who resigned as an FIA steward; and attorneys Pierre Ketterer and Ed Floyd.
“You have to ask yourself, why has so many people decided to call it a day all of a sudden?” stated Wolff.
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 zone, according to the most recent accusation, which was reported by the BBC.
who, while attending the race in Saudi Arabia in an official capacity, expressed his strong opinion that Alonso’s penalty ought to be lifted.
While serving a five-second penalty during the race, Alonso’s pit crew touched his car, resulting in a 10-second penalty. Due to the penalty, he dropped from third to fourth, trailing George Russell of Mercedes.
According to the allegation, Ben Sulayem “pretended the stewards to overturn their decision to issue” Alonso’s penalty, according to the whistleblower. Pretendere is an Italian verb that implies to demand or anticipate.
Alonso eventually succeeded in having the penalty reversed, which allowed him to reclaim his podium spot.
There was no indication of improper behavior at the time. Instead, Aston Martin’s sporting director received recognitionAndy Stevenson effectively argued on behalf of the team during a right of review by providing the stewards with seven recordings of penalty pit stops involving Mercedes, Alpine, Haas, and McLaren that involved contact between the jacks.
The findings from the ethics committee should be released in four to six weeks.