Over the past 12 months, tensions between F1 and the governing body have been growing, and after Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s recent tweets, the lid has been blown off the bottle.
It’s hard to imagine another FISA/FOCA style war that threatened the existence of the sport as we know it back in the early 80s, however, after FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s tweets about F1’s ‘inflated’ $20billion price tag, a senior source has told Motorsport.com that it is now ‘open warfare’ between the two organisations.
In the wake of the presidents suggestions, F1 sent a letter to the FIA, revealed by the BBC and Sky, and within it including a reference to Ben Sulayem’s comments interfering with F1’s commercial rights holder “in an unacceptable manner” saying that if damage to the value of F1 is caused “the FIA may be held liable as a result.”
F1’s letter also indicates that Ben Sulayem does not understand the agreement the commercial rights holder and the FIA have as he has no say or right of approval and that it is not his matter to deal with because it crosses a line in the separation between F1 and the FIA on commercial matters as part of an anti- trust legislation.
The latest in a list of mistakes and interferences
Since Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s appointment as FIA president, there have been many instances of a behind the scenes battle for power between F1 and the governing body and other various misshaps.
Recently it has been his use of Twitter, where he announced he wants to open the process to new teams, then took to the platform to complain about ‘adverse reaction’ to the Andretti/Cadillac entry bid, with F1 sending a ‘lukewarm’ message to the news and the teams responding negatively in private.
The governing body’s responses to certain situations has also said to have annoyed parts of the paddock, such as the errors made by the FIA during Abu Dhabi 2021 and other race control missteps, such as the Monza safety car and the Japanese Grand Prix points rule handling that left Max Verstappen not knowing whether he was World Champion.
And according to Motorsport.com, Ben Sulayem’s way of privately handling situations has also come under scrutiny as he does not use typical presidential methods.
Like the FISA/FOCA war?
During the early 1980s, FOCA who represented the teams without factory backing, and FISA, who were the governing body, were in a power struggle over the commercial rights income and how it should be distributed.
The political battle raged for a couple of years with race boycotts and threats of a break away Championship – and even a non-Championship event held in South Africa put together by FOCA- until the very first Concorde agreement was signed, stating that FOCA would deal with the income and distribute it more evenly to the teams and FISA would continue to govern over the sport.
I’m not for one minute suggesting that the rifts between F1 and the FIA are as drastic as they were between FISA and FOCA just over four decades ago, however, it’s certainly going to be an interesting backdrop over the upcoming 2023 F1 season, as the relationship between the sport and the governing body isn’t as stable as it has been over the past few years.