Mohammed Ben Sulayem: FIA president under investigation for alleged attempt to interfere over F1 race

So, the head of the FIA has a scandal. Alpine lost their technical staff. Red Bull is close to losing their WDC, their chief designer and their deal with Ford.

And there has only been one race....

Hey, at least this corrupt FIA boss has a different skin color! 🌈P R O G R E S S🌈

Seems like Formula 1 needs a stability patch.

That's crazy and completely unbelievable. A high up figure in the FIA would never seek to manipulate the results of a race or championship.

The revelation of an attempt to interfere over the penalty decision is the latest in a series of controversies to embroil Ben Sulayem since being elected in December 2021. Most recently, the FIA launched a compliance inquiry into Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff and his wife Susie on the basis of claims in a magazine of a conflict of interest. The inquiry was withdrawn after just two days, following angry interventions from Mercedes, F1 and the other nine teams, who all said they had not made a complaint. Insiders say that the FIA may face legal action over the Wolffs matter. A series of controversies through 2022, Ben Sulayem's first year in office, led to widespread concern in F1 about his presidency and calls from senior figures for him to be replaced. After pressure over the winter of 2022-23, Ben Sulayem said he would take a step back from direct involvement in F1, saying it had been his "stated objective to be a non-executive president". The controversies included but were not limited to: Blocking for six months an agreement between the teams and commercial rights holder to double the number of sprint weekends for 2023 Receiving a "cease-and-desist" letter from F1's lawyers following his reaction on social media to a story claiming Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund had tried to buy the sport for $20bn The emergence of a historical website that quoted him making misogynistic remarks Ben Sulayem has said his intervention over the sprints was to ensure the FIA had sufficient resources to handle the change; he has not commented on the cease-and-desist letter. He defended historical sexist remarks on his website in an interview with the Press Association last November, saying: "What did I say, if I said it? Let's assume it was [me]. I 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." A number of senior figures have resigned from the FIA in recent months. These include Steve Nielsen, who took on the role of sporting director in early 2023 and resigned before he had spent a year in his role; the head of the women's commission Deborah Mayer; Gerd Ennser, the head of German motorsport's authority the ADAC, who quit his role as an FIA steward; lawyers Pierre Ketterer and Ed Floyd; and FIA single-seater director Tim Goss. None of these figures have given public explanations for their departure from the FIA. Goss, a former McLaren technical director, took a job as chief technical officer of Red Bull's RB team.<

If I had a nickel for every time Alonso benefitted from someone rigging a race, I'd have two nickels.

Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it (allegedly) happened twice.

A bit of a weird allegation. The FIA are the ones who decide on these things (penalty reviews) after a race has finished, arent they? So if he tells his employees that he thinks the penalty should be lifted, what exactly is the wrong thing here?