The FIA ​​President was called in

The 2024 Formula 1 Championship has just started, and the International Automobile Federation (FIA), which licenses the most prestigious racing series in the world, is already rocked by scandals. The story with the boss of the Red Bull champion team Christian Horner, who is accused of inappropriate communication with one of the employees of the “stable,” has not yet ended, when a new one appeared. This time the person involved was the FIA ​​President himself, Mohammed bin Sulayem. He is accused of attempting, perhaps successfully, to influence the determination of the race winners. We are talking about the scandalous story that took place last season, when Aston Martin leader Fernando Alonso first lost third place at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix for violations committed by his team, but later his place on the podium was returned to him. It is believed that this happened after the intervention of the head of the FIA.

Disciplinary Committee of the International Automobile Federation opened a business regarding FIA President Mohammed bin Sulayem. According to the BBC, the investigation was launched after receiving a message from a certain informant who said that Mr. bin Sulayem had made an attempt, possibly successful, to influence the results of one of the Formula 1 stages of the 2023 season. We are talking about the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix that took place in March last year.

This was the second stage of the world championship, won by Red Bull driver Sergio Perez. But passions flared up not around the winner, but in relation to the Aston Martin representative, two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, who came to the finish line third. The race directorate considered that Alonso’s car was positioned incorrectly at the start, for which he received a five-second penalty. The Spaniard had to leave it at a pit stop. That’s what he did. The problems started after the finish. The race directorate believed that the Aston Martin team mechanic touched Alonso’s car with a jack before those five seconds had expired. For this, 10 seconds were added to the Spaniard’s time, which deprived him of his place in the top three.

However, Aston Martin protested this decision and was successful – the penalty was overturned, and Alonso returned to the podium.

But, according to an FIA informant, the revision of the punishment occurred as a result of interference in the process by Mohammed bin Sulayem.

He allegedly called FIA Vice-President for the Middle East and North Africa region, Sheikh Abdullah bin Isa al-Khalifa, and insisted on canceling Alonso’s fine. How Sheikh Abdullah could influence the decision of the FIA ​​disciplinary structures is not explained. We would like to add that the FIA’s decision to cancel Alonso’s fine noted that the wording of the regulations that allowed the race directorate to punish the Spaniard was “ambiguous,” and such points should be interpreted in favor of the athlete. Subsequently regulations has been adjusted. Now a car or driver serving a penalty cannot be touched under any circumstances. In the previous version of the regulations, it was said that you cannot “work” with the machine.

Let us note that the FIA ​​has been going through hard times lately. The Formula 1 World Championship began only last Saturday, and two scandals are already raging in the series.

In addition to the story in which Mohammed bin Sulayem is involved, there is also a scandal at the center of which is the boss of the champion team of the Red Bull series (its representative Max Verstappen has won the last three world championships) Christian Horner. The latter became the subject of an investigation initiated by the parent company of Red Bull (manufacturer of soft drinks) after a statement from a certain employee of the “stable” that Mr. Horner behaved inappropriately towards her. An independent specialist hired to conduct the investigation dropped all charges against Mr. Horner, but passions nevertheless do not subside. After the decision to drop the charges against Mr. Horner was made public, someone from an anonymous email address sent screenshots of the Briton’s correspondence with a certain person on WhatsApp to all team managers, drivers, representatives of accredited media, etc. The list of recipients includes almost two hundred recipients. But it is noteworthy that none of them published anything. Simply because it is not yet possible to confirm the authenticity of the screenshots.

Nevertheless, Red Bull is in a fever. Max Verstappen’s father, Jos Verstappen, who also competed in Formula 1 at one time (he changed seven teams during his career and scored as many as 17 points in 107 Grand Prix, that is, less than his son usually collects in one stage), said , that if Horner does not resign from his post, Red Bull will simply be torn apart from the inside. In addition, Verstappen Sr. was already seen in the Mercedes pits communicating with the boss of the German team, Toto Wolf. This has inevitably led to speculation that Max Verstappen (who is under contract with Red Bull until 2028 but has early termination options) might be considering a change of team. But, given how the Bahrain Grand Prix turned out, which Verstappen won with a clear advantage and in which the Mercedes cars looked very pale, it would be naive to count on the current world champion giving up the champion car.

Alexander Petrov