FIA president Mohamed Ben Sulayem is reportedly under investigation for allegedly interfering with Formula 1 race results.
The BBC reports that a whistleblower has told the FIA that Ben Sulayem is suspected of intervening to cancel a penalty given to Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso at the 2023 Saudi Grand Prix.
FIA president Mohamed Ben Sulayem embroiled in allegations of race interference
The penalty in question was a 10-second penalty given to the Spaniard for a mechanic touching his car before a 5-second penalty was imposed.
When Alonso pitted to serve his penalty for not lining up in the box on the start line, the rear jack was placed on the car too early, so Alonso was unable to serve his first penalty correctly and received a further 10 I was given a second grace. .
The penalty initially dropped Alonso to fourth place behind George Russell, but it was later overturned and the Aston Martin driver returned to the podium.
At the time, the FIA said the decision had been reversed following discussions between F1 teams and the FIA about working on the car while incurring a penalty in the pits. Aston Martin submitted a right of review after the race and was successful.
However, this time, Ben Sulayem called Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the FIA's vice president for sport in the Middle East and North Africa, who was in Saudi Arabia for the race in an official capacity. The BBC claims that he said this. He thought Alonso's penalty should be canceled.
A whistleblower has now notified the FIA ethics committee, and the BBC claims to have seen the report submitted by compliance officer Paolo Vasari.
Vasari said Ben Sulayem “pretended to overturn the decision imposed on the stewards” for the penalty against Alonso. In Italian, the word “pretendere” means to request or expect.
Neither Ben Sulayem nor the FIA declined to comment, but the BBC said multiple sources have confirmed the validity of the charges and it is expected it will take four to six weeks for the governing body to publish its report. claims.
If true, this would be the latest in a series of incidents for Ben Sulayem, who is already facing calls to resign from office.
This time last year, he was forced to quit F1 after suggesting a Saudi-backed commercial rights bid was “inflated”.
Around the same time, sexist quotes attributed to him resurfaced on archived versions of his personal website.
