F1 Drama After Whistleblower Accuses FIA President of Shenanigans

A whistleblower has accused FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem of abusing his authority to influence the results of the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The alleged action was attributed toward influencing the results of the Formula 1 event.

According to BBC Sport, Ben Sulayem was said to have intervened to overturn a time penalty issued to Fernando Alonso during the race. A 10-second penalty was issued when the Aston Martin crew touched Alonso’s car while it was enduring a separate 5-second penalty in the pit lane — something that is explicitly against the rules.

The matter was included in a report compiled by an FIA compliance officer and sent along to the ethics committee, citing a whistleblower claim that Ben Sulayem (Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa) went out of his way to have the penalty against Alonso revoked. As the FIA's vice-president for sport for the Middle East and North Africa, he attended the event in an official capacity and anything he had to say on the matter would have been highly influential. However, it’s not entirely clear what actions he took and whether this constituted him overstepping.

From BBC Sport:

The initial penalty was issued due to Alonso having his car parked beyond the confines of the starting grid. When he made his first pit stop, he was required to serve the five-second penalty — which prohibits any work being carried out on the vehicle until the time has concluded.

Aston Martin was struck with an additional ten-second penalty after judges noted that the crew had worked on Alonso’s car before the original five-second period had ended. It was said that the rear jack made contact with the car prematurely, ensuring one member of the pit crew had a very bad day and setting the stage for the contentious revocation.

The original reason given for overturning the decision (following a Right of Review by Aston Martin) was reportedly a discussion between F1 teams and the FIA on what actually constitutes work when a vehicle is serving time in the pits. Citing there being no real consensus, Ben Sulayem allegedly pushed to have the penalty overturned. Meanwhile, FIA regulations are pretty clear that the car cannot be moved at