Ben Sulayem: I’m not afraid to make mistakes

Mohammed bin Sulayem was elected president of the FIA ​​late last year and already with his first decisions in this position he made it clear that he intends to run the federation differently from his predecessor, Jean Todt.

The FIA ​​president spoke in an interview with Speedweek about which tasks he considers most important.

Mohammed bin Sulayem: “When I competed in rallies, all my thoughts were on how to win races. As I got more and more wins I started to get scared of losing, but at some point I asked myself, “How long do I want to do this?”

I realized that there are many things in life other than rallying. That’s why I started participating in the work of the motorsport federation in my country. At the time, everything was still in its infancy, but we had a lot of support from Max Mosley, then president of the FIA.

For example, we were able to organize a Formula 1 race in Bahrain in 2004 and drive the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from 2009 onwards. But now that I have become president of the federation, I am faced with new challenges. And before making a decision, I always consult with subordinates, turn to various experts for advice. This doesn’t mean I’ll definitely follow their recommendations, but I want to get a bigger picture.

I am not afraid to make mistakes. What seems to be a good solution today may turn out to be wrong in three months and must then be corrected. In my opinion, the ability to correct mistakes is a sign of strength. It is very important to me to observe common sense and the principles of justice.

The rally taught me patience and shaped my character. Over the years of my career I have met many people who represent different cultures, countries, races, strata of society, they spoke different languages ​​and behaved differently. But circuit racing, in my opinion, is a very different environment, where we always communicate with the same people.

The FIA ​​president must be ready for change. One of the major problems of the modern world is issues of gender equality and diversity. I have always understood that there should be no limits in sport. I think karting is a good example of that, where the boys compete against the girls; in addition, I have always advocated that women act as navigators in rallies.

If in America women compete as much as men in drag racing, why not in Formula 3 and F2? That’s why we got together with the FIA ​​experts and asked ourselves: maybe these cars are designed in such a way that women can’t drive them in an optimal way? What can we do to break these boundaries? This is one of my duties.

The FIA ​​is a global organization and we need to ensure that talented people, no matter what country they come from, have the opportunity to break through. That’s why it’s in our plans to provide funding for various programs, but it shouldn’t just be aimed at the riders. For example, we must also ensure the training of the next generation of engineers.

We are preparing for the reform of the FIA, this will start with the role of the president of the federation. We must create conditions under which the development of motorsport does not depend on one person.

We have a very serious task ahead of us. Only Formula 1 presents us with the most difficult tasks. World Cup participants approached me with a request to address the issue of race management. But good race directors cannot be ordered through Amazon – it takes years to properly train such specialists.

This was one of the reasons why we created a virtual race control center – it is based in Geneva and provides support to the race directors during the Grand Prix. It trains future race leaders. In this way we achieve several goals at the same time: we train new staff, already experienced specialists get extra practice and in the future, if we need more such specialists, we have a reserve.”