Projected FIA President refutes allegations by Jos Verstappen

12:13, 04 Jul

byLudo van Denderen

Tim Mayer, the American who has put himself forward to contest the presidency against incumbent FIA boss Mohammed Ben Sulayem, refutes criticism that he would be biased. Mayer is indeed the son of Ted Mayer, the founder of McLaren.

By 8:30 a.m. local time, F1 media had gathered in a small room far from the paddock, as Mayer was not permitted by the FIA to hold his presentation at Silverstone. During the extensive press opportunity, Mayer was asked among other things about potential bias. In his response, the former steward - who had been dismissed by Ben Sulayem - mentioned the name of Jos Verstappen.

According to Mayer, no one has ever doubted his impartiality except for one person.

"Actually, they never directly made a conflict of interest challenge against me. I think [Jos] Verstappen made that inference," said the American in conversation with, among others, GPblog.

Verstappen's criticism refuted

"I've been a Formula One steward since 2009. Everybody in the paddock knows that Ted founded McLaren Racing back in 63. He sold it in 82. I've never worked for McLaren, never had a relationship with McLaren, other than I certainly shake hands with Zak [Brown] in the paddock."

“But, you know, nobody's actually had a problem with me being associated historically with McLaren. And by the way, in my bio that's published in the media every single week when I'm a steward, it's first lines, as always said, Tim Mayer, son of Teddy Mayer, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So all the teams know. All the teams have known. And nobody has ever objected. I will tell you the proudest moment of my officiating career."

Mayer even penalized his father

Mayer then recalls a moment he is most proud of in his time as a steward. “Dad, at the time, was running Penske racing, and I penalized him at Motegi, Japan, for a pit stop violation that he pulled with Paul Tracy. They appealed the penalty. We went to the appeal process, and I won. He said, Tim, the worm has turned."