Corruption at the FIA about to boil over? MBS consolidating power.

[Cs98]

https://www.planetf1.com/news/fia-to-pu ... ule-change

At the moment, ethics complaints in the FIA are overseen by the senate; the proposed change would instead mean ethics complaints would be overseen by FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem and the president of the senate — though there are other proposals afoot.

Proposed changes center on the statues that dictate the audit and ethics committees — two committees that have launched investigations into the conduct of current FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

Allegations arose that Sulayem interfered in the operations of two grands prix back in 2023; those allegations were ultimately dismissed.

Further, the audit committee has looked into the finances of Sulayem’s private office, which included the creation of a “president’s fund.” This fund consisted of a $1.5 million sum, which was to be distributed to member clubs, which vote for FIA president.

The revisions of the FIA’s operating procedure would completely alter the function of the aforementioned committees.

The audit committee, for example, would be stripped of its power to investigate financial issues independently.

Over in the ethics committee, the revisions would remove the power of the entire senate to review ethics complaints. Instead, the FIA president and the president of the senate would review those complaints together.

Per the BBC, these changes would totally remove the senate’s role in appointing the head of the ethics committee; that power would lie solely in the hands of the FIA president.

Further, the compliance officer would no longer have the ability to report issues to the audit committee. The audit committee would also be unable to investigate any issues that were not directly raised by the president ot the senate.

The vote on December 13 will be critical for determining the scope of the FIA president’s power in the future.

[PapayaFan481]

When is he up for re-election?

I wonder whether the GPDA might try and put forward someone they prefer?

[Quantum]

Drivers should just refuse to race under his leadership.

Kyalami 1982 they did(for a different reason).

MBS is clearly not up to task, and has gone from one calamity to the next. Now he's making it impossible for the sport to have checks and balances of his leadership. Random firings, the Toto/Susie debacle, interfering in race weekends etc etc.
Teams will be under some threat of sanction, but drivers can refuse to drive under his tenure.
The fan uproar would be more than enough to unseat the clown.

[TFSA]

When is he up for re-election?

I wonder whether the GPDA might try and put forward someone they prefer?

Ben would still win. The FIA election process is an easily manipulated* sh*tshow - so much that I'd say it's worse than the American Presidential Election.

*(and by manipulated i don't mean cheating, but it's very open to be gamed in entirely legal ways, because it's constructed horribly)

[KimiRai]

MBS is clearly not up to task, and has gone from one calamity to the next.

While a part of those "calamities" is self-inflicted, and he certainly is not the best diplomat, but you would have to be a fool to think that the attacks from the press and witch hunt against his person are completely organic. It feels manufactured to undermine him, probably a dislike of a strong FIA who does not bow down to others

[Quantum]

MBS is clearly not up to task, and has gone from one calamity to the next.

While a part of those "calamities" is self-inflicted, and he certainly is not the best diplomat, but you would have to be a fool to think that the attacks from the press and witch hunt against his person are completely organic. It feels manufactured to undermine him, probably a dislike of a strong FIA who does not bow down to others

I don't see how the press can be to blame for random sackings, accompanied by dishonest press releases, ridiculous outbursts, going witchhunting against Susie and Toto, interfering in race weekend operations and so on and so forth.
No FIA president ever got it easy with the press either, from Ballestre to Mosely and even the benign Todt.
MBS makes Ballestre look like a stately diplomat.

[Cs98]

MBS is clearly not up to task, and has gone from one calamity to the next.

While a part of those "calamities" is self-inflicted, and he certainly is not the best diplomat, but you would have to be a fool to think that the attacks from the press and witch hunt against his person are completely organic. It feels manufactured to undermine him, probably a dislike of a strong FIA who does not bow down to others

But he should have to bow down to others if he has done something wrong or against the rules, that's called checks and balances. Just firing everyone who can hold you accountable inside the FIA, and then consolidating all the powers that were able to hold you accountable to be under your influence is not conducive to a "strong FIA", it's just a basic dictatorship.

[dren]

With these proposed changes he should just have a vote to remove the hearing of any ethics complaint.

[RonMexico]

No one will challenge him unless they are confident of winning the election. He probably has a solid majority secured already

[SiLo]

Drivers are probably the only ones that can actually make a stand against him.

[peewon]

Seems to me the witch hunt is on him. First, somebody dug up some quotes from his personal website from 20+ years ago (which werent even that bad in all honesty) and made a whole news cycle out of it. Meanwhile Helmut Marko was going full "superior race europeans" in the present and that story disappeared in days.

A tabloid puts out an accusatory story against Mercedes, FIA spokesperson gets specifically asked about it in a press conference and all he says is "we'll look into it", as they should with any serious allegation. The whole thing is dismissed within two days. Sussie Wolff goes crying to the media as if something tragic has been done to her all the while targeting the FIA and alleging legal action. Seems very calculated. If anyone, she should have been mad at the tabloid. FIA literally did nothing. It made no sense and became obvious that she was just milking it to target Ben Sulayem.

Does anyone remember Toto getting budget cap violation information before it was made public and his former secretary Sheila Ann Rao was working for the FIA during that time?

Tim Mayer was one of the Stewards let go by the FIA also runs a marketing company with Ferrari, Mercedes and RB as clients. How is that not a conflict of interest? Nobody even brought it up. Apparently asking grown up professionals to not swear in press conferences is too much.

The last person to do anything remotely anti-Mercedes was Michael Massi and that dude is completely out of F1. MBS was one of the strongest proponents of letting Andretti in FOM and Toto were the most outspoken against it. Anybody who thinks there isnt a political angle to this storyline is deluding themselves.

[GrizzleBoy]

The amount of names that have left the FIA the last 12 months Is astounding and smells like people getting out of the way of the fan before the poop hits it.

What is the poop though?

Did someone break an NDA?

[Mosin123]

Seems to me the witch hunt is on him. First, somebody dug up some quotes from his personal website from 20+ years ago (which werent even that bad in all honesty) and made a whole news cycle out of it. Meanwhile Helmut Marko was going full "superior race europeans" in the present and that story disappeared in days.

A tabloid puts out an accusatory story against Mercedes, FIA spokesperson gets specifically asked about it in a press conference and all he says is "we'll look into it", as they should with any serious allegation. The whole thing is dismissed within two days. Sussie Wolff goes crying to the media as if something tragic has been done to her all the while targeting the FIA and alleging legal action. Seems very calculated. If anyone, she should have been mad at the tabloid. FIA literally did nothing. It made no sense and became obvious that she was just milking it to target Ben Sulayem.

Does anyone remember Toto getting budget cap violation information before it was made public and his former secretary Sheila Ann Rao was working for the FIA during that time?

Tim Mayer was one of the Stewards let go by the FIA also runs a marketing company with Ferrari, Mercedes and RB as clients. How is that not a conflict of interest? Nobody even brought it up. Apparently asking grown up professionals to not swear in press conferences is too much.

The last person to do anything remotely anti-Mercedes was Michael Massi and that dude is completely out of F1. MBS was one of the strongest proponents of letting Andretti in FOM and Toto were the most outspoken against it. Anybody who thinks there isnt a political angle to this storyline is deluding themselves.

I read most of the teams including Redbull, Ferrari, Mclaren, Haas, Willaims, Sauber, and Alpine didnt want them in either, Any particular reason you only named Toto?

If some one names and shames before any complaint / investigation has even happened, publicly, and damages the reputation of said person, then they have done a big two fingers at said person. FIA should have just said nothing. she isnt taken them to court for no reason you know......

Every other team can hire Tim Mayers marketing company too, so i dont get the complaint, its not like he has two teams and one of them does controversial things every now that just so happen to help its bigger sister team, but is apprently 100 % free from interference....

Mohammed was also one of those giving snippets to the media about a team breaking the FFP rules, again, why only point out Toto? Ferrari was saying things too, and Mclaren. it was in the news before Toto said a word also... just like we all knew about Alpine and Honda broke the cost cap procedure before the FIA released any statement....... guess that was Totos fault too..

Cant say having the FIA president marking his own wrong doing how he wants is in the best intrest of the sport, it smells of corruption to me..

[FW17]

The amount of names that have left the FIA the last 12 months Is astounding and smells like people getting out of the way of the fan before the poop hits it.

What is the poop though?

Did someone break an NDA?

Didn't he say they hired some 150 people in the last 2 years? It is only right if they a few are let go to make way for the new guys.


Speaking of corruption, we all know that Liberty and Teams pay the media (need not be in cash), now imagine FOM running F1 without FIA.

[peewon]

Seems to me the witch hunt is on him. First, somebody dug up some quotes from his personal website from 20+ years ago (which werent even that bad in all honesty) and made a whole news cycle out of it. Meanwhile Helmut Marko was going full "superior race europeans" in the present and that story disappeared in days.

A tabloid puts out an accusatory story against Mercedes, FIA spokesperson gets specifically asked about it in a press conference and all he says is "we'll look into it", as they should with any serious allegation. The whole thing is dismissed within two days. Sussie Wolff goes crying to the media as if something tragic has been done to her all the while targeting the FIA and alleging legal action. Seems very calculated. If anyone, she should have been mad at the tabloid. FIA literally did nothing. It made no sense and became obvious that she was just milking it to target Ben Sulayem.

Does anyone remember Toto getting budget cap violation information before it was made public and his former secretary Sheila Ann Rao was working for the FIA during that time?

Tim Mayer was one of the Stewards let go by the FIA also runs a marketing company with Ferrari, Mercedes and RB as clients. How is that not a conflict of interest? Nobody even brought it up. Apparently asking grown up professionals to not swear in press conferences is too much.

The last person to do anything remotely anti-Mercedes was Michael Massi and that dude is completely out of F1. MBS was one of the strongest proponents of letting Andretti in FOM and Toto were the most outspoken against it. Anybody who thinks there isnt a political angle to this storyline is deluding themselves.

I read most of the teams including Redbull, Ferrari, Mclaren, Haas, Willaims, Sauber, and Alpine didnt want them in either, Any particular reason you only named Toto?

If some one names and shames before any complaint / investigation has even happened, publicly, and damages the reputation of said person, then they have done a big two fingers at said person. FIA should have just said nothing. she isnt taken them to court for no reason you know......

Every other team can hire Tim Mayers marketing company too, so i dont get the complaint, its not like he has two teams and one of them does controversial things every now that just so happen to help its bigger sister team, but is apprently 100 % free from interference....

Mohammed was also one of those giving snippets to the media about a team breaking the FFP rules, again, why only point out Toto? Ferrari was saying things too, and Mclaren. it was in the news before Toto said a word also... just like we all knew about Alpine and Honda broke the cost cap procedure before the FIA released any statement....... guess that was Totos fault too..

Cant say having the FIA president marking his own wrong doing how he wants is in the best intrest of the sport, it smells of corruption to me..

When the journalist asked the FIA spokesperson if they were aware of the story, he simply said "we are and we'll look into it." In no way, shape or form is that naming or shaming anyone by the FIA. If at all, its the tabloid that the Wolff's should be mad at and the fact they went after FIA and MBS told me immediately that it was a political thing.

MBS was not giving out any snippets regarding how many teams had violated the FFP. You're literally making it up. Even if he did, hes part of the FIA and therefore prevy to that information. Toto is not part of the FIA so him having that information should raise serious questions as to how he got that before it was made public.

Saying any team can hire Mayer's company is like saying anyone can bribe a politician and therefore should not be a problem. Its a clear cut conflict of interest and should not be allowed.