230 replies to this topic

[Marklar]

Baby wake up. a new F1 scandal dropped
 

 

Mohammed Ben Sulayem, president of motorsport's governing body the FIA, is under investigation for allegedly interfering over a Formula 1 race result.

 

A whistleblower has told the FIA that Ben Sulayem allegedly intervened to overturn a penalty given to Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso at the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

 

The claim is in a report by an FIA compliance officer to its ethics committee, which has been seen by BBC Sport.

 

Ben Sulayem and the FIA have not responded to requests for comment.

 

The allegation made by the whistleblower is that Ben Sulayem called Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamas bin Isa Al Khalifa - the FIA's vice-president for sport for the Middle East and North Africa region, who was in Saudi Arabia for the race in an official capacity - and made it clear he thought Alonso's penalty should be revoked.

 

Alonso had been given a 10-second penalty for work done on his car while he was serving a previous five-second penalty.

 

The report, by compliance officer Paolo Basarri, says the whistleblower reported that Ben Sulayem "pretended the stewards to overturn their decision to issue" the penalty to Alonso.

 

In Italian, the word "pretendere" means to require or expect.

 

The ethics committee is expected to take four to six weeks to issue its report.

 

The penalty in question had dropped Alonso from third place - behind Red Bull drivers Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen - to fourth, also behind Mercedes' George Russell. Withdrawing it returned him to a podium position.

 

In addition, BBC Sport has verified the information with several senior figures at high levels in F1 and close to the FIA. None would go on the record, but all said they had the same information.

 

https://www.bbc.com/...rmula1/68465516

[TheFish]

How do so many dumb people rise to the top?

[midgrid]

So, is this scandal meant to distract from Horner-gate, or is Horner-gate meant to distract from this one?  I can't keep up!

[RekF1]

Christ on a bike. What's going on? https://www.bbc.co.u...rmula1/68465516

[NateF]

Something to mess up that bouffant is good news to me!

[NateF]

How do so many dumb people rise to the top?

a little something to grease the way always helps

[Clatter]

Seems they are doing everything they can to distract from the actual racing. The side shows are more fun.

[Gareth]

Shocked to discover that MBS is alleged to have interfered with a race result to harm Mercedes.

The amazing bit is that they’re investigating tbh.

[Leibowitz]

How do so many dumb people rise to the top?

Honourable people stay away from politics

Edited by Leibowitz, 04 March 2024 - 16:32.

[Coral]

I just saw this. OMG what's going on!

[CSF]

Not Fernando again! 

 

 

 

[NateF]

Is the FIA investigating the FIA? Wonder what the outcome will be!

[GiorgioF1]

You can't make this **** up.

[Muppetmad]

How decidedly tedious.

[Leibowitz]

Bad day to deactivate X

[H0R]

I am convinced that all of this is part of Roger Penske's master plan to establish Indycar as the world's number one racing series.

[SophieB]

I like the way Andrew Benson’s piece rather pointedly ends on the long list of people to flee the FIA in recent months.

 

 

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.

 

[Hank]

After AD21, everything in F1 is now par for the course. Less sport, more WWE.

 

FIA is just one F away from going FIFA. 

[RekF1]

You can't make this **** up.

Ironically, it turns out that race directors can in fact make this **** up.

[NateF]

Lol

“With this plan, FIA opens the way for a new step forward in Formula 1 refereeing. Without the referees, there is no sport. Respect and support of the referees is in the essence of the FIA. That is why these structural changes are crucial in a context of strong development and the legitimate expectations of drivers, teams, manufacturers, organizers, and of course, the fans.

I warmly thank all those who contributed to this reform.

These changes will enable us to start the 2022 Formula 1 season in the best conditions, and our sport will be even more loved and respected”

MBS

Edited by NateF, 04 March 2024 - 16:45.

[1player]

Will F1 still be around by Saturday for the Saudi race?

[GiorgioF1]

Ironically, it turns out that race directors can in fact make this **** up.

 

*Spoken with the Morgan Freeman's voice*

[Burtros]

The man has no place leading the sport and never should have been elected. He must go!

[pup]

So are they talking about also amending the results?  This would also drop Alonso from 4th to 6th in the WDC, no?

Edited by pup, 04 March 2024 - 16:52.

[IrvTheSwerve]

So, is this scandal meant to distract from Horner-gate, or is Horner-gate meant to distract from this one?  I can't keep up!

Liberty need to find a prospective team that they can turn down, and sharpish!

[Risil]

Baby wake up. a new F1 scandal dropped

https://www.bbc.com/...rmula1/68465516

Yellows breed yellows

[DaddyCool]

So the desired outcome here was that the Aramco-sponsored Alonso/Aston ended up on the podium in Saudia Arabia, right?

[Francesc]

Is Briatore involved?

[AncientLurker]

So, is this scandal meant to distract from Horner-gate, or is Horner-gate meant to distract from this one?  I can't keep up!

It is all meant to distract from the Andrretti decision. At this rate, they may beg Andretti to join just for some good PR and to distract from their distractions to the Andretti decision. Are you following?

[NateF]

Liberty need to find a prospective team that they can turn down, and sharpish!

Hamilton moving to Haas!

[jonklug]

Guys I am tired, I can't read more scandals, ffs

[midgrid]

Funnily enough, I think the penalties were draconian and that Alonso deserved to finish on the podium.  However, that's a problem with the rulebook.  Should the President of the FIA be personally interfering in stewards' decisions?  Of course not.

[TomNokoe]

Lol this particular instance doesn't bother me but I suppose it's a worrying precedent.

I bet things like this happened all the time in the past, we just didn't hear about it.

[Disgrace]

This appears especially silly as the penalty was overturned correctly on its own merits. So he could lose it all for nothing.

[Risil]

I bet things like this happened all the time in the past, we just didn't hear about it.

One time it definitely didn't happen was in 2008. Another was in 1989.

[andysaint]

The man needed to go before this alleged incident. If true, his exit should be swift.

[ClubmanGT]

I bet things like this happened all the time in the past, we just didn't hear about it.

 

You can arguably feel some comfort that we're even hearing about it - shows there's some sort of system at work. 

 

I don't recall a dumber start to the season in many, many years. 

[Risil]

Obvious question I guess but would this be against the FIA's rules or is it just something that would strike the average person as unethical?

[jwill189]

No one talked about how Mercedes waited until the end of the race to try and politic that penalty so Alonso couldn't build an additional 5 second gap.
 

Afterward, Aston Martin had tons of receipts showing precedence of a jack touching the car with no penalty, including Hamilton's 2021 Silverstone incident. The stewards had no choice but to overturn such an egregious penalty.

[ARTGP]

So are they talking about also amending the results?  This would also drop Alonso from 4th to 6th in the WDC, no?

I don't think this impacted the race result.  Aston Martin had the FIA bang to rights. They had never penalized other teams for doing the same thing that Aston had done (touching the car with the jack) so they were able to weasel there way out of the penalty (and the FIA need to change the regs to be explicit if they wanted to penalize this).

 

Whether an FIA president should be calling race officials to "make things go away"  is the more relevant matter to debate.  This isn't the first time either. Jean Todt famously swept Ferrari's PU "discrepancies" under the rug in 2019. 

[ANF]

I'm sure there will be an independent and transparent investigation...

[RoryFormula1]

Lots of dirtbags getting their comeuppance right now.

[Disgrace]

I'm sure there will be an independent and transparent investigation...

 

Followed by the leak of uh... private messages. 

[F1Lurker]

If true he should resign. He would have brought the sport into disrepute!

[Laster]

Where’s the Oprah meme?
You get a scandal!
You get a scandal!
EVERYBODY GETS A SCANDAL!

[MKSixer]

NEWSFLASH!

 

THE ORGANIZATION FOR THE PROPAGATION OF RACING MALFEASANCE ANNOUNCES AN INTERNAL INVESTIGATION OF THE LEADER OF THE ORGANIZATION FOR THE PROPAGATION OF

 

RACING MALFEASANCE. THIS TRANSPARENT INTERNAL INVESTIGATION WILL BE HEADED BY THE CHIEF INVESTIGATOR OF THE ORGANIZATION FOR THE PROPAGATION OF RACING

 

MALFEASANCE WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE CHIEF COUNSEL OF THE ORGANIZATION FOR THE PROPAGATION OF RACING MALFEASANCE. ONCE COMPLETED, THE LEADER OF THE

 

ORGANIZATION FOR THE PROPAGATION OF RACING MALFEASANCE WILL BE JUDGED BY A TRIBUNAL OF MEMBERS OF THE ORGANIZATION FOR THE PROPAGATION OF RACING

 

MALFEASANCE AND ONCE CLEARED OF THE ACCUSATIONS, THE RESULTS OF THIS INTERNAL AND TRANSPARENT INVESTIGATION OF THE LEADER OF THE ORGANIZATION FOR THE

 

PROPAGATION OF RACING MALFEASANCE WILL BE PERMANENTLY SEALED UNDER THE REGULATION OF BRINGING THE SPORT AND THE ORGANIZATION FOR THE PROPAGATION OF RACING MALFEASANCE INTO DISREPUTE. 

 

ENDS.

Edited by MKSixer, 04 March 2024 - 17:13.

[NateF]

Seriously just how many questionable things has this man said or done since he was appointed?

[aportinga]

Some how this will be all RedBulls fault.

[JHSingo]

Curious timing. Why has this only come out now, more or less a full year after it happened?

 

And if this brings MBS down, who would replace him? It doesn't strike me that there's all that many possible candidates.

 

Don't tell me they'd have to bring back Jean Todt...

[vee10]

Wet finger picture or it didn't happen.