After the last Monaco Grand Prix, there were clear signs of a rift between Formula 1 and the federation’s new president, Mohammed bin Sulayem. Liberty Media’s championship owners fear that the FIA’s actions will damage the reputation of Formula 1, which is now gaining popularity around the world, including in the United States.
In Monaco, the FIA was criticized for a delayed start due to rain and power cuts to the electronic start systems. But even before the Monaco stage, Liberty Media had a pretty serious list of claims against the FIA.
At the beginning of this year, the first signs of discontent in Formula 1 began to manifest themselves against the FIA. First, the championship was unhappy with the federation’s report on its analysis of the events of last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Subsequently, the FIA was criticized for not making an immediate decision to cancel the Russian Grand Prix.
In April, Ben Sulayem spoke out against increasing the number of sprint stages to six per season, which caused discontent not only for Liberty Media, but also for Formula 1 teams.
The recent ban on the wearing of jewelry by racers has sparked a public confrontation with the FIA. It is believed that Ben Sulayem personally insists on following this rule. His principled stance on the matter is reportedly related to Lewis Hamilton’s refusal to attend the FIA awards ceremony in December last year, which became the first public event to see the participation of Ben Sulayem in his new position, and the chairman of the the federation has not forgiven Lewis for this act.
The FIA’s performance was also criticized during the recent Miami Grand Prix. After the crashes of Esteban Ocon and Carlos Sainz, the riders asked the federation to install Tecpro barriers at Turn 14, but their request was denied, even though there were additional Tecpros in reserve. In turn, Fernando Alonso accused the Miami Grand Prix stewards of being unprofessional, though he later tried to smooth out the harshness of his statements.
There is growing opinion within Liberty Media’s leadership that many of the FIA’s actions are negatively impacting Formula 1, and the championship will benefit from the reduction of the federation’s role, which relies almost entirely on of Formula 1 revenues.
Source: F1 News
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
