FIA President Allegedly Intervened to Change Result of F1 Race Last Season, Investigation Underway: Report – News18

Global motorsports governing physique FIA president Mohamed Ben Sulayem is reportedly beneath investigation for allegedly interfering to change the outcome of an F1 race final season. Ben Sulayem is claimed to have requested the stewards to overturn their resolution to penalise Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso throughout the 2023 Saudi Grand Prix.

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According to BBC, an FIA compliance officer has made these claims in his studies to its ethics committee citing a whistleblower.

At the Saudi GP final yr, Alonso was first given a 5-second penalty consequently of him putting his automotive simply outdoors the beginning field on the grid earlier than the race. And when he was serving the penalty at his first pit cease, an extra 10-second penalty was handed with Aston Martin discovered to have breached the principles by engaged on Alonso’s automotive.

The second penalty was given after Alonso’s automotive was deemed to have been touched by the rear jack earlier than the ‘end of full time duration’.

The resolution was ultimately overturned with the stewards explaining, “We concluded that there was no clear agreement, as was suggested to the stewards previously, that could be relied upon to determine that parties had agreed that a jack touching a car would amount to working on the car.”

As per the report, the whistleblower has alleged that Ben Sulayem instructed Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamas bin Isa Al Khalifa, FIA’s vice-president for sport for the Middle East and North Africa area, throughout the Saudi GP that Alonso’s penalty needs to be revoked.

As per the compliance officer, the whistleblower has claimed that Ben Sulayem “pretended* the stewards to overturn their decision to issue” penalty to Alonso.

*The phrase pretendere means require/anticipate in Italian.