Hi friends,
I became an uncle late last night, so I’m a bit tired today. But the newsletter must go on! We have more FIA shenanigans to talk about.
Top Story of the Week: FIA Officials Barred From Meeting Over NDA Refusal
First, a little statistic for you: This is the 39th edition of the Race Week Recap, and the fourth about Mohammed Ben Sulayem. 10.3% of the top stories each week have been about him. That’s far too many. But he keeps propelling himself into these situations, so here we are again.
The story this week, is that Ben Sulayem barred a number of people, including members of the World Motor Sport Council Robert Reid (FIA Deputy President for Sport) and David Richards (Chairman of Motorsports UK), from attending a meeting because they refused to sign an updated and much stricter non-disclosure agreement.
Both Reid and Richards supported Ben Sulayem during his 2021 election campaign, with Reid even being his pick for Deputy President for Sport, but have since fallen out of favour with the President, after having criticised his leadership.
And while on the surface it may appear that this is another step in MBS’ concerns about negative press coverage of himself and the organisation, FIA insiders have speculated that the situation unfolded because he is planning further changes to the FIA governance at the general assembly in June, which would prevent anyone from running against him in the December elections, and wanting to keep those changes from leaking in order to avoid resistance from FIA members and the public.
Earlier this year, Ben Sulayem successfully put forward changes to the ethics and audit committees, centralising both areas in the President’s office – A move which was criticised as a “worrisome concentration of power” by Thierry Willemarck, head of the Royal Touring Club of Belgium, as well as other prominent FIA members. Despite the criticism, the changes passed with ~75% of votes in favour.
In a time when the FIA is facing major disapproval among fans and drivers, with many calling for more transparency in how the organisation operates, Ben Sulayem seems intent on closing it up around himself and his team.
There have been rumours of potential candidates to run against Ben Sulayem in December, but so far he will be running unopposed.
The Rest of the Stories This Week:
- F1 is testing different cameras in Bahrain
- F1 TV is introducing a new premium tier
- Carlos Sainz takes over from Sebastian Vettel as the Director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association
- Haas has returned to the normal sized pitwall
- Calum Nicholas, prominent and longtime Red Bull mechanic, has left the team
- The ban on fans entering the track after the race in Melbourne has been lifted
- WRC drivers issue a statement criticising the new FIA regulations regarding swearwords
- The FIA reiterates the expectation that all drivers follow the new regulations
- Victor Martins is no longer part of the Alpine Academy
- Arrow McLaren INDYCAR Team has named Tony Kanaan as their new Team Principal
- There will be a LEGO fan-zone at select races this year
- The legal dispute between Haas and Guenther Steiner has been settled
- The F1 Exhibition is coming to Amsterdam in in April
- The EU Antitrust authorities have paused their investigation into the Liberty Media takeover of Moto GP
- KTM’s restructuring plan has been accepted by creditors
- Rockstar Energy signed Lia Block to their athletes roster
- Motorsport Images will be shutting down on March 3rd
- Former Red Bull partner Bybit lost $1.5 billion in a crypto heist
- Three months after the final race, Christian Ho has been named EuroCup 3 Champion
That’s it for this week, thank you for being here.
If you want to support me, you can help fuel the snack addition that powers me through compiling these lists and vetting the stories – you can do so on Buymeacoffee or Patreon.
