Paris (AFP) – FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem was on Wednesday cleared of accusations that he interfered with the organisation of last year’s inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The governing body’s ethics committee said “a robust and wide-ranging independent review spanning 30 days, which included interviews with 11 witnesses” took place.
“Allegations against the FIA president were unsubstantiated,” the body said in a statement. Ben Sulayem was said to have asked officials “to find some concerns to prevent the FIA from certifying the circuit before the weekend of the race (in Las Vegas)”, according to an internal FIA report quoted by the BBC.
According to the whistleblower mentioned in the compliance report, “the purpose was to find fault with the track in order to withhold the licence”. “Issues on the circuit were meant to be artificially identified regardless of their actual existence.”
The reasons why the president of the FIA would have wanted to prevent the race from taking place have never been explained. However, there have been claims of tensions over influence in the sport between the FIA and American group Liberty Media, who own the commercial rights to F1 and who organise the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The FIA ethics committee also cleared Ben Sulayem over claims of interference in another race, last year’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The BBC claimed the FIA chief had asked officials to cancel a penalty imposed on Fernando Alonso during the race. However, “the president was exonerated of any wrongdoing”, said the FIA in a statement.
© 2024 AFP
