F1 News: FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem INVESTIGATED over alleged race 'interference'

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FIA president Ben Sulayem INVESTIGATED over alleged F1 race 'interference'

Another huge story from the world of F1

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Monday 4 March 2024 18:12

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FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem is under investigation for allegedly interfering with an official Formula 1 race result, according to the BBC.

The 62-year-old has reportedly been referred to the FIA's ethics committee following a whistleblower's accusations aimed at Ben Sulayem that he allegedly attempted to revoke a Fernando Alonso penalty during a race in the 2023 season.

The race in question was the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, where Alonso finished third, behind the Red Bulls of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen.

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Alonso had been given a five second stop-and-go penalty in the race, before being slammed with another 10 second penalty due to his team working on his car during that initial penalty being served.

However, it is being alleged that Ben Sulayem himself influenced the decision to take that second penalty away from Alonso, allowing the Aston Martin driver to finish ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and claim the final podium position.

Fernando Alonso claimed eight podiums in 2023

Mohammed Ben Sulayem recently held a meeting with under-fire Christian Horner

Alonso podium in doubt

As it happened, Russell finished around five seconds behind Alonso, meaning it would have resulted in a third podium of the 2023 season for Russell, had the penalty have stood.

At the time, the justification given by the stewards for overturning the decision was that a discussion had taken place between teams and the FIA on the subject of working on cars while serving a penalty in the pits.

The right of review decision said: "We concluded that there was no clear agreement, as was suggested to the stewards previously, that could be relied upon to determine that parties had agreed that a jack touching a car would amount to working on the car."

However, BBC Sport are reporting that the whistleblower revealed Ben Sulayem allegedly "pretended the stewards to overturn their decision to issue" the penalty to Alonso.