Recaps

Race Week Recap #52 – The FIA General Assembly Edition

By Jeppe H. Olesen 3 min read
The FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting in Macau in June 2025

Hi friends,

I’m back! I spent all of May working with the Game Operations team for the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships, but now it’s technically summer, and my focus is back on racing.

I want to thank Ash for covering for me in May, and you should definitely go follow her – I highly recommend her podcast with Elizabeth Blackstock if you like unfiltered motorsports talk.

Top Story of the Week: The Austrian Automobile Association Urges FIA Members to Reject Statute Changes

The FIA General Assembly has convened in Macau this week, and on today’s agenda is a vote on a collection of statute changes that would tighten President Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s grip on power ahead of the presidential election in December.

Recapping the major changes up for a vote:

  • Earlier election registration deadline: Candidates standing for election would have to register four weeks earlier than the current 21 days before an election, giving Ben Sulayem and his team more time to vet (or veto) his opponents.
  • An integrity clause: A vague “no blemishes” clause added to the FIA Election statutes, which would let the Nominations Committee–and by extension Mohammed Ben Sulayem–decide who is eligible to run for President.
  • Senate structure change: Letting the President appoint four “independent” senators, bypassing the chamber vote entirely.
  • World Motor Sport Council structure change: Limiting multiple members from the same nation, reshaping the council’s composition.

These changes centralise even more power in the president’s office, tilt the election toward the incumbent, and chip away at oversight within the FIA — which already took a hit last December, when the ethics and audit committees were restructured to report directly to the president rather than operate as independent units within the FIA.

Earlier today, the ÖAMTC — the Austrian Automobile Association — published a letter to fellow FIA members warning of “democratic back-sliding” and a “dark period” of weakened checks and balances if the changes pass. It calls the timing “no coincidence” and says any whiff of self-interest should send the package back for post-election review.

You can read the letter in full here.

Ben Sulayem insists he has a happy majority behind him and welcomes competition, though none has surfaced yet. Still, dissent has grown louder: deputy president Robert Reid quit in April citing a “breakdown in governance,” while Motorsport UK’s David Richards, former CEO Natalie Robyn and others have publicly questioned the president’s promises of transparency.

If the revisions clear the vote in Macau, the election timeline tightens dramatically. Opponents would need to declare candidacies under the new early deadline, survive the broadened integrity screening and campaign under rules that give the president fresh influence over the Senate and World Motor Sport Council.

Rejection would give critics breathing room to draft alternative reforms or rally a challenger list under the current statutes. It would also force Ben Sulayem to prove he still holds a majority rather than assume it.

Either way, the road to the December election starts here. By tonight we’ll know whether the FIA heads into the second half of 2025 with a more balanced constitution — or one that concentrates even more authority in the president’s office.

The Rest of the Stories This Week:

That’s it for this week, thank you for being here.

If you want to support me, you can help fuel the snack addiction that powers me through compiling these lists and vetting the stories – you can do so on Buymeacoffee or Patreon.

Jeppe H. Olesen

I write things about motorsports.