The first race of the 2024 Formula 1 season is already history, the second Grand Prix is imminent: However, hardly anyone is currently talking about the sporting aspects of Max Verstappen once again seeming to dominate the premier class of motorsport at will. The revelations of a whistleblower are making headlines.
A BBC report recently caused a moderate earthquake in Formula 1. With reference to the statements of a whistleblower, the broadcaster spread the claim that FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem was being investigated internally because the 62-year-old was involved in the Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia is said to have intervened in 2023 to reverse a penalty against Fernando Alonso.
This accusation is contained in a report from a compliance officer at the FIA, which is available to the BBC. The British broadcaster had the information confirmed by other insiders.
But that’s not all: a little later, the next accusation against Ben Sulaymen appeared in the newspapers. The FIA boss, the “BBC” reported again, tried to prevent Formula 1 from returning to Las Vegas. Allegedly, Ben Sulaymen approached the FIA officials through representatives and demanded that they find a reason why a race in the glittering metropolis was not safe enough.
“The purpose was to find faults on the track in order to withhold the license.” These errors should have been created “artificially” – regardless of whether they actually existed,” the source who spread the first accusation is quoted as saying.
If this is true, Ben Sulaymen was at least unsuccessful. However, the FIA has now confirmed that it has received a report detailing the allegations in question. These will now be evaluated as usual.
Like in a Hollywood spy movie
For “Motorsport Total”, expert Christian Nimmervoll classified the events and surprised us with insights into the whistleblower who is said to have got the ball rolling.
According to information from the portal, he is currently working for Formula 1, or rather for the US media company Liberty Media, which is responsible for the commercial exploitation of the racing series. Explosive: The report doesn’t name a name, but it speculates very specifically that the whistleblower worked directly for Formula 1 between “2017 and January 2023, then was in a high-ranking position at the FIA for less than a year and then returned to Formula 1 has returned”.
No one explicitly wants to draw a conclusion from this, but the whole thing is reminiscent of Hollywood spy films in which organizations are infiltrated.
This should not be a defense of Ben Sulaymen, and misconduct by the FIA boss would not be a surprise, said Nimmervoll.
However, when it comes to the accusations, one must definitely take into account that Ben Sulaymen is definitely “a thorn in the side” of Liberty Media. After all, the interests of Liberty Media and the FIA are often quite apart. One also has to ask oneself what advantage Ben Sulaymen could have gained from the alleged events.