Other accusations
There is no peace for the president of the FIA Mohammed Ben Sulayem. Ended up in the crosshairs of accusations yesterday for alleged interference in the outcome of the match Saudi Arabian GP 2023 – in which he would have asked to cancel a penalty imposed by the stewards on Fernando Alonso to allow him to obtain a podium position – today the number one of the international federation was also accused of trying to prevent the homologation of the Las Vegas circuit last year.
Something regarding his illegal involvement in the American race had already emerged from the columns of Corriere dello Sportas we reported in a article this morning, but now the situation has taken on clearer contours. According to what was reported by BBC the same source who allegedly denounced Ben Sulayem's illicit behavior in the Jeddah race is also behind these new accusations.
Illicit pressure not to approve Las Vegas
This whistleblower claims that “by order of the president of the FIA” the officials who had to grant approval to the track built on the Las Vegas Strip were told to find a way to not have the circuit approved, making it appear as not safe enough to host the race. The claim is contained in a report produced by the FIA's compliance officer for its ethics committee.
The compliance report quotes the whistleblower as saying that the purpose of the FIA president's interference “was to find defects in the circuit in order to deny the license. When asked to be more specific, [l’informatore] said the circuit's problems needed to be artificially identified, regardless of their actual existence, with the ultimate goal of denying the license.” However, in its article the BBC also specified that other officials present at the time of the events have a different memory of the events than that of the informant.
Obviously the circuit received approval and the Grand Prix – strongly desired by F1 to publicize its image in the United States – took place. During PL1, however, there were numerous controversies due to an accident involving Carlos Sainz's Ferrari, with a manhole cover coming off the road and breaking through the bottom of the Spaniard's SF-23. On an economic level, the Las Vegas GP represented a huge investment for F1, which spent over 580 million euros on its organisation.
The contract between F1 and the FIA also requires FOM – the holder of F1's commercial rights – to pay the FIA around $40 million a year to carry out its regulatory duties. During these years of presidency of the FIA it is known that Ben Sulayem clashed several times with the leaders of F1 on various sporting, commercial and political issues.
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