Mohammed Ben Sulayem. FIA President since 2021. And, as you might’ve gathered from last week’s article, we do NOT have a lot of love for the FIA right now.
MBS, as he’s often (not-so-lovingly) called, is an Emirati former rally driver and motorsports executive who’s been around the FIA since 2005. In his time as president, he’s built a reputation for controversies, double standards, and plain old hypocrisy, all of which have deepened the already growing trust gap between F1 fans and the sport’s governing body.
After years of unfairness, unfairness, and even more unfairness, it’s no wonder that Mohammed Ben Sulayem has quickly become one of the most hated figures in F1 and motorsport alike. So let’s take a little tour through MBS’ greatest hits of incompetence. Let’s see if you still feel neutral about him after this.
Let’s start with the most controversial race of the modern F1 era: Abu Dhabi 2021. The showdown between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen: Hamilton aiming for his historic eighth title, Verstappen chasing his first. It should have been a clean fight to the end.
Instead, what we got was a chaotic mess. Michael Masi, the then-race director, broke the safety car procedure, letting only some lapped cars through, handing Max a last-lap gift and ripping a rightful championship away from Lewis. Now, to be fair, MBS wasn’t president yet, but he inherited the chaos. And instead of cleaning up the mess? He completely botched it.
Rather than offering real transparency or addressing the outrage from fans, teams, and media, Ben Sulayem turned the entire “review” into more of a checkbox exercise than a real reckoning. No real transparency. No real accountability. He chose to start his presidency standing on the shaky ground of zero trust, and it’s been crumbling ever since.
If you thought things would improve once the dust settled… you were wrong.
Under MBS, the FIA’s decision-making has become even more chaotic. Rules? What rules?
Track limits are applied differently weekend to weekend.
Penalties contradict each other depending on the driver and situation.
Incidents like impeding are sometimes punished harshly, and sometimes ignored entirely.
Drivers have openly expressed their frustration, confused about what they can and can’t do. When the people actually driving the cars don’t know what the rules are… something is seriously broken.
It’s not just us shouting into the void, people inside F1 can’t stand him either. And the list keeps growing.
Tensions with Toto Wolff exploded after the 2023 Mercedes flexi-wing saga. Christian Horner hasn’t held back jabs about FIA interference. Even usually diplomatic drivers like Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, and Max Verstappen have fought back against his bans on jewellery, political expression, and even, yes, swearing.
“I feel like it’s almost a step backwards.” — Lewis Hamilton, on the FIA’s jewellery and political expression bans.
MBS’ list of enemies is basically a who’s-who of the grid. It says something when fierce rivals are united… in their mutual disdain for the FIA’s leadership.
MBS’ off-track record somehow manages to be even worse than his on-track decisions. Old interviews resurfaced where he made sexist remarks like:
“I don’t like women who think they are smarter than men — because they are not in truth.”
While the FIA issued a very weak distancing statement, no formal consequences followed. Then came the new FIA rule banning drivers from making political statements without prior approval, seen as an attack on LGBTQ+ support, BLM gestures, and drivers’ freedom of speech. The hypocrisy? MBS himself has been seen cosying up to controversial figures like Donald Trump at races like Miami, a political statement if there ever was one.
Unfortunately, the problems don’t stop with his public image. Behind the scenes, there are credible reports that Ben Sulayem has interfered directly in race management, despite that being absolutely not the FIA president’s role.
In 2023, reports surfaced that he tried to influence race outcomes, including attempts to overturn Fernando Alonso’s penalty at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
His alleged interference left even seasoned insiders questioning whether races were being decided fairly, or by presidential whim.
Every time these stories break, it erodes trust in the FIA’s integrity just a little bit more. And we’re running on fumes already.
What Formula 1 needs isn’t a puppet master, we need a leader, and a system, built on transparency and respect. That means:
Admitting mistakes openly and fixing them.
Applying rules fairly and consistently.
Picking officials based on trust and track record, not random assignment.
Keeping the FIA president out of race operations.
Actually listening to fans, drivers, and teams when making major decisions.
Maybe F1 could even establish a drivers’ union, a formal body that reviews and discusses rule changes before they’re implemented. Fans, drivers, and teams working with the FIA, not against it. Imagine that.
(cough MBS, you might want to take notes cough)
And just when you think the circus might be ending… Mohammed Ben Sulayem is running for re-election at the end of 2025. Unopposed. No new candidates. No real challenge.
Come on, Susie Wolff, we need you to throw your hat in the ring. Motorsport deserves better.
Trackside Talk 