Mohammed Ben Sulayem to take step back from Formula 1
Under-fire motorsport boss Mohammed Ben Sulayem has said he will step back from day-to-day involvement with Formula 1.
The Emirati, who has been president of governing body the FIA since the end of 2021, said in a letter to team bosses reported by Sky Sports: “My stated objective was to be a non-executive president via recruitment of a team of professional managers, which has now been largely completed.”
It is understood that figures within the FIA had raised concerns surrounding a number of controversies that have occurred on Ben Sulayem’s watch. Among those were his insistence on approving changes to cars, blocking agreements about sprint race weekends and receiving a “cease-and-desist” letter from F1’s lawyers for talking down the series’ value.
“Your day-to-day contact for all matters on F1 will be [the, director of single-seater racing] and his team, while I will focus on strategic matters with my leadership team,” Sulayem added.
The FIA said in a statement: “The president’s manifesto clearly set out this plan before he was elected… ‘the appointment of an FIA CEO to provide an integrated and aligned operation,’ as well as to ‘introduce a revised governance framework’.”