FIA reacts: 'This is a natural next step for president Ben Sulayem'

The FIA confirme reports that Mohammed Ben Sulayem is stepping down with immediate effect. The president of the International Motorsport Federation will no longer deal with the everyday business of Formula 1. He will leave this task to Greek Nikolas Tombazis from now on.

Recently, Sulayem has come under fire from Liberty Media and the F1 teams. They were annoyed by statements about the future of Formula 1 and a reported bid made by the Saudi Public Investment Fund. It is by no means strange to suspect that his step back was prompted by all the incidents. Yet according to the FIA, that is not the case at all.

All along the intention

A spokesman for the motorsport federation revealed in a statement to various media that even before Ben Sulayem's appointment, it had been decided that the president would at some point step aside from some of his duties: "The President’s manifesto clearly set out this plan before he was elected.

"The FIA president has many areas of focus, including global motorsport and mobility. Now that Formula 1's structural reorganisation has been completed, this is a natural next step.It pledged ‘the appointment of an FIA CEO to provide an integrated and aligned operation,’ as well as to ‘introduce a revised governance framework’ under ‘a leadership team focused on transparency, democracy, and growth.’ (...) The FIA President has a wide remit that covers the breadth of global motor sport and mobility, and now that the structural reorganisation in Formula 1 is complete this is a natural next step.”

Ben Sulayem informed the teams in a letter this week that he will be less active in day-to-day operations. The FIA confirmed the news only after it had thus come out via British media.