FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has advised Components 1 drivers to thoughts their very own enterprise after they requested the place cash from race fines was going and why senior figures had left the governing physique.
In an interview with Reuters forward of Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix, the president instructed the drivers ought to persist with what they know finest.
“Do we now have to inform them? When one thing within the groups adjustments, do they inform us?,” Ben Sulayem mentioned when requested in regards to the shock departure of race director Niels Wittich earlier than final weekend’s title-deciding Las Vegas Grand Prix.
“We’ve the foundations, we observe our guidelines. We do not observe another person’s rule. Easy as this.”
Wittich has mentioned he didn’t resign and the FIA have given no public clarification as to why he immediately left past saying it was to pursue new alternatives. Media experiences have mentioned he was sacked.
Main steward Tim Mayer, the son of former McLaren boss Teddy, and Components 2 race director Janette Tan have additionally left.
Mercedes driver George Russell, a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Affiliation (GPDA), mentioned on Thursday drivers needed readability and understanding “of what is going on on and who’s getting fired subsequent.”
Ben Sulayem, a former rally driver who was elected as FIA head in 2021, responded by saying: “Will we inform them how you can drive? Will we inform them what to have as their technique?
“It is none of their enterprise. Sorry … I’m a driver. I respect the drivers. Allow them to go and focus on what they do finest, which is race.”
The GPDA issued a exceptional assertion final month, in response to an FIA clampdown on swearing, wherein they requested Ben Sulayem to deal with them like adults and thoughts his personal language in the direction of them.
Additionally they requested monetary transparency and mentioned all stakeholders, together with drivers and groups, ought to collectively decide how and the place the cash from fines was spent — with some suggesting it might assist fund skilled stewards.
“They discuss after which they are saying, the place are you placing the cash? Why we do not do that? I do not say ‘Oh, sorry, what about you?’,” Ben Sulayem mentioned.
“The drivers are getting over 100 million. Do I ask the place they spend it? No. It is as much as them. It is their proper … We do no matter we do with the cash. It is our enterprise. It is also with them and their cash. It is their enterprise.”
Ben Sulayem mentioned the drivers had his cell quantity and he had nothing to cover.
He mentioned he “lived freed from cost” within the brains of critics within the media and didn’t want them or care what folks mentioned. He additionally rejected any suggestion that the FIA was in disaster and struggling a workers exodus underneath his management.
Regardless of his “none of your enterprise” stance, Ben Sulayem mentioned that €10.3 million ($10.9m) had been invested in grassroots single-seater racing final yr.
“You actually assume I might waste the cash? This isn’t industrial. That is the cash of the members, and I’ve been elected to safeguard that,” he mentioned.
Ben Sulayem mentioned 64 staff had joined the FIA in 2023 and 92 in 2024.
“I’ve been elected to repair the FIA. and I’m fixing it. I’m very pleased with our new staff. Very completely happy.
“I inherited an FIA with an working price of €-23m. And the place is it now? This would be the first yr that we’re plus.”