The president of the FIA Mohammed Ben Sulayem is being investigated regarding claims that he tried to change the outcome of a Formula 1 race last season.
This investigation comes after a report was given to the FIA’s ethics team about an incident at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in 2023.
A whistleblower has said that Ben Sulayem didn’t agree with the penalty given to Aston Martin’s driver, Fernando Alonso during the race.
Ben Sulaymen supposedly got in touch with Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, a senior FIA boss for the Middle East and North Africa, to say the penalty should be withdrawn.
Alonso dropped from third to fourth place after the penalty, but removing it put him back in third.
The FIA said they’re taking it seriously and are looking into it, but they won’t give more details because they want to protect people’s privacy, BBC Sport reported.
Ben Sulayem has been in the middle of a few problems since he started leading the FIA in 2021. He got into a legal tangle over a claim of a conflict of interest involving Toto Wolff, who manages the Mercedes F1 team.
The case was dropped soon after.
Pictured above: Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
Image source: X
