Did anyone anticipate a scandal involving fixing a Formula 1 race when they made their 2024 predictions? I doubt it. Nonetheless, emerging reports suggest that FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem may have utilized his power to sway the outcome of the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
As per BBC Sport, an informant informed the FIA alleging that Ben Sulayem intervened to reverse a time penalty imposed on Fernando Alonso during that race. The penalty was given when the Aston Martin team made contact with Alonso’s car while it was serving a separate five-second penalty in the pit lane—conduct explicitly prohibited by the regulations.
According to the report from FIA Compliance Officer Paolo Basarri, the whistleblower claims that Ben Sulayem “influenced the stewards to reverse their decision to impose” the penalty. BBC Sport clarifies that in Italian, the term “pretendere” translates to “to demand or anticipate.”
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The document reveals that Ben Sulayem personally contacted FIA’s Vice President for Sport for the Middle East and North Africa, Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, instructing him to rescind the penalty.
The British publication states that they have reviewed Basarri’s official report and verified the details with several key figures in F1, all of whom claimed to have received identical information but opted to maintain anonymity.
The 10-second penalty pushed Alonso from third place to fourth, causing him to lose his spot on the podium, the trophy, and the championship points to Mercedes’ George Russell. However, a few hours after the race, the FIA stewards reversed the penalty and reinstated Alonso to third place. This decision was perplexing at the time, with suggestions that Aston Martin had sufficient grounds to challenge the penalty.
It now seems that Ben Sulayem may have exerted influence to assist Aston Martin and Alonso. It is noteworthy that all of this transpired during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Coincidentally, the Saudi Arabian oil behemoth Aramco is a major sponsor not only of Aston Martin but also of F1 as a whole.
Allegedly, the FIA’s ethics committee will need around six weeks to furnish its findings on the issue. Interestingly, the last instance of tampering with the results of an F1 race was also to aid Alonso in winning—an episode that eventually led to a legal challenge from Felipe Massa many years later.
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