The FIA president is accused of lifting Alonso’s sanction for the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
lFormula 1 started confidently in the offices. While not leaving the internal struggle within Red Bull, where Horner and Jos Verstappen are fighting, Now another, perhaps more controversial, news is coming out, in which everything smells like another chapter of the confrontation between Formula 1 and the FIA president.
According to BBC Sport.Mohamed Ben Sulayem, president of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, is under investigation for allegedly interfering with the outcome of a Formula One race. last season. The alleged complaint may have come from an FIA employee who says that “Sulayem called the FIA Vice President of Sport for the Middle East region, who was in Saudi Arabia for the race, remove the 10-second penalty from Fernando Alonso” This is reported by the British media.
According to the complainant, Sulayem “He wanted the stewards to overturn the decision to impose” a sanction on Fernando Alonso that cost him the podium. Neither the FIA nor Sulayem have commented on the matter and the ethics committee is expected to take some time. four to six weeks to publish your report.
Fernando Alonso on the podium in Saudi Arabia
He report that he claims to have seen the BBC (which an interested party may have shown him) will be prepared by the official Paolo Basarri The complainant (the racing commissioner) is said to have said that Ben Sulayem “asked the stewards to rescind their decision to fine Alonso. In Italian, the word “pretendere” means “to demand or wait,” they say from the BBC about the terms of the document.
The sanction that was lifted from Alonso
Fernando Alonso received a 5-second penalty for placing his car outside the starting grid for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. While serving a sentence at a stop The stewards believed that the Aston Martin had hit the car with its rear jack before those seconds had passed. and received a 10-second penalty, due to which he lost the podium. The English team asked to review the sanction and after the race returned the Asturian to third place. when he returned to George for an hour Russell (Mercedes), fourth place in the classification. Two weeks later, in Australia, he returned the trophy to Fernando, with whom he has a good personal relationship.
Does this smell like Toto’s revenge?
Without providing any evidence, as the information does, everything points to possible retaliation from Toto Wolff, the CEO of Mercedes. Cause The investigation launched by the FIA in December into alleged insider leaks may be related to this. to Mercedes from FOM (Formula 1 Management), where his wife works Sassy Wolf, in promoting women’s categories
Within 24 hours, the FIA completely changed the process: “Having reviewed the Formula 1 Code of Conduct and the Formula 1 Conflict of Interest Policy and confirmed that adequate safeguards are in place to mitigate any potential conflict, lThe FIA is satisfied that the FOM compliance management system is sufficiently robust. to avoid unauthorized leakage of confidential information,” it said after the correction.
We will have to remain alert to new controversies regarding developments as The FIA could provide some explanation soon.