Ben Sulayem wants to use India to make motorsport even bigger

The 2023 Formula 1 calendar features no fewer than 23 races. Yet many of these take place in Europe, the two Americas and the Middle East, as this is where the sport is at its biggest. FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem sees potential for the sport to become even bigger by getting other regions more involved.

The areas in question in this case are India and China. In Ben Sulayem's view, motorsport is not yet big enough globally and such areas can contribute to growth. India did have an F1 Grand Prix for a while, but the last one was held in 2013. Now, motorsport is somewhat back in the country with the recent Hyderabad ePrix. Still, there is work to be done.

"As the FIA, we are international. If we want to grow motorsport and mobility, we have to reach all markets. It doesn’t make sense to me that the two biggest countries in the world – India and China – with all of their manufacturers have just 8,000 [competition] licence holders of motorsport, whereas some countries like Finland, which has less than 6 million population, has over 12,000 [licence holders]," Ben Sulayem told Autocar India.

Listening to Indians

So, the number of licence holders, according to the FIA president, needs to start growing. When a track or company has a licence, they are authorised to race or work as a manufacturer, depending on the type of licence. Ben Sulayem also thinks it is important that the Indians themselves should have a say in how they go about their motorsport programmes, as long as they comply with FIA guidelines and safety regulations.

“Who knows India better than the Indians themselves? So that is why we empower the ASN [national sporting authorities] and the [local] clubs because they know better than us. We listen to them and in my [election] manifesto, we invested over 2,000 hours listening to clubs. And we delivered. So to me, we haven’t even scratched the surface yet," the FIA president said.

According to Ben Sulayem, this is only the beginning, there is much more to achieve in India. Who knows, maybe all the time and effort the Emirati is putting into this project will eventually lead to another Grand Prix in India... although it remains to be seen whether that will fit on the calendar.