FIA president Ben Sulayem investigated for alleged race interference
lplita sahim
Mohammed Ben Sulayem, president of motorsport's governing body the FIA, is under investigation for allegedly interfering over a Formula 1 race result.
A whistleblower has told the FIA that Ben Sulayem allegedly intervened to overturn a penalty given to Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso at the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The claim is in a report by an FIA compliance officer to its ethics committee, which has been seen by BBC Sport.
Ben Sulayem and the FIA have not responded to requests for comment.
The allegation made by the whistleblower is that Ben Sulayem called Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa - the FIA's vice-president for sport for the Middle East and North Africa region, who was in Saudi Arabia for the race in an official capacity - and made it clear he thought Alonso's penalty should be revoked.
Alonso had been given a 10-second penalty for work done on his car while he was serving a previous five-second penalty.
The report, by compliance officer Paolo Basarri, says the whistleblower reported that Ben Sulayem "pretended the stewards to overturn their decision to issue" the penalty to Alonso.
In Italian, the word "pretendere" means to require or expect.
The ethics committee is expected to take four to six weeks to issue its report.
https://slashpage.com/breaking-war
https://slashpage.com/breaking-war24
https://www.taskade.com/p/2024-01HR5CKQK7GXN9ZG09PNQENQ8E
https://www.taskade.com/p/2024-1080-01HR5CMP9AGAJTAM9NS14XV19A
https://www.taskade.com/p/2024-tw-zh-01HR5CNWPFXD02DDWPJP25NVDD
https://groups.google.com/g/breaking-war/c/ZKCH14YGw50
https://groups.google.com/g/breaking-war/c/ljv_OYUnKBM
https://slashpage.com/johnny-keep-walking25
https://slashpage.com/watch-johnny-keep-walking
https://www.taskade.com/p/2024-01HR5EKCY1QG6BCBEQBKGG2K7R
https://www.taskade.com/p/2024-1080-01HR5EM6VWNFPBGQ7MGRS906S9
https://www.taskade.com/p/2024-tw-zh-01HR5EN2VT5D1F57DNYQ3BDKD7
https://groups.google.com/g/johnny-keep-walking24/c/m7fGDgM6Z4s
https://groups.google.com/g/johnny-keep-walking24/c/xl84nQtGcKM
https://vk.com/@758907815-2024-1080p
https://vk.com/@758907815-2024tw
https://vk.com/@756981460-zh-2024
https://vk.com/@756981460-2024-hd
https://slashpage.com/the-beekeeper-hdsite
https://slashpage.com/the-beekeeper-2024-tw
https://www.taskade.com/p/2024-01HR5FSHNPX9F7CF61RGWT1NFD
https://www.taskade.com/p/2024-1080-01HR5FT8GBJYV5YPJYGV0JE592
https://www.taskade.com/p/2024-tw-zh-01HR5FV4XGCAQRATET7FECM6WG
https://groups.google.com/g/the-beekeeper24/c/0OvCtXQ_Yd4
https://groups.google.com/g/the-beekeeper24/c/DVAfyeLLxzQ
https://vk.com/@756983182-2024-1080p
https://vk.com/@756983182-hd-1080p-zh
https://vk.com/@756984841-2024tw
https://vk.com/@756984841-zh-2024
https://forum.instube.com/d/77499-fia-president-ben-sulayem-investigated-for-alleged-race-interference
https://wandering.flarum.cloud/d/46971-fia-president-ben-sulayem-investigated-for-alleged-race-interference
https://forum.webnovel.com/d/168272-fia-president-ben-sulayem-investigated-for-alleged-race-interference
https://www.bitsdujour.com/profiles/Y43CMi
https://muckrack.com/eusher-ecoland/bio
https://profile.hatena.ne.jp/eusher/
https://dancehalldatabase.com/forum/Dancehall-Reggae/FIA-president-Ben-Sulayem-investigated-for-alleged-race-interference/fe9de7041388eb8ed9ed759a00b3809c/50428
https://lifeisfeudal.com/forum/fia-president-ben-sulayem-investigated-for-alleged-race-inte-t105626/
https://www.wattpad.com/1428064958-football%27s-hottest-talent-factory-fia-president
https://theomnibuzz.com/fia-president-ben-sulayem-investigated-for-alleged-race-interference/
https://newindexing.hashnode.dev/fia-president-ben-sulayem-investigated-for-alleged-race-interference
https://gamma.app/public/FIA-president-Ben-Sulayem-investigated-for-alleged-race-interfere-rwihamj169z9c9b
https://hackmd.io/@j-asdp-5TneqMFVthFL5gw/SkHdw2mTa
The penalty in question had dropped Alonso from third place - behind Red Bull drivers Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen - to fourth, also behind Mercedes' George Russell. Withdrawing it returned him to a podium position.
In addition, BBC Sport has verified the information with several senior figures at high levels in F1 and close to the FIA. None would go on the record, but all said they had the same information.