Former FIA CEO Natalie Robyn said the motorsport’s governing body has “serious ongoing structural challenges” since the resignation of Deputy President of Sport Robert Reid, according to Andrew Benson of BBC.com. It is the “first time Robyn has spoken publicly” since leaving the organization in May 2024. Robyn said, “The resignation of the deputy president of sport clearly indicates there are serious ongoing structural challenges.” Reid’s resignation and Robyn’s decision to go public are “significant developments” in the ongoing saga of controversies that have “unfolded around” FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem in the past three years. They are the “first of the significant number of people who worked closely with Ben Sulayem within the FIA who have since left to voice their criticisms of his management style” and the direction in which he is taking the governing body. Benson: “The question now is whether these latest developments have any impact on the forthcoming FIA presidential election in December.” Sources mentioned that Ben Sulayem’s “support is solid.” Indeed, some of the ways in which he has been “trying to shore it up -- for example, by offering financial incentives to motorsport clubs -- are involved in the departures of some of the key figures who have left the FIA in the last year or so.” No one has come forward to oppose Ben Sulayem, but sources close to the FIA said that “at least one potential candidate is in the wings” (BBC.com, 4/10).
DRIVERS VOICE: ESPN’s Nate Saunders writes F1 driver George Russell said that he and his fellow F1 drivers are “concerned the governing FIA appears to be heading in an ‘unstable direction.‘” Russell, a “significant voice in the paddock” as head of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, said that Reid’s departure “fell in line with what he has come to expect from the governing body.” Russell suggested that he and his fellow drivers “feel increasingly disillusioned by what’s happening with the governing body and expressed doubts about whether Formula 1 and the teams can keep making allowances for the way the FIA is run” (ESPN.com, 4/10).
MANY CONCERNS: THE ATHLETIC’s Luke Smith writes the concerns come “amid a critical point in defining the coming years for F1.” Firstly, there is the Concorde Agreement regarding the sport’s commercial terms, which is up for renewal at the end of the year. These terms tie together F1, the FIA and the teams both commercially and from a governance point of view. But in Australia, F1 announced that “only the commercial terms had been finalized for the next five-year cycle,” and said that the governance agreement would be “finalized in due course.” The more “topical issue” this weekend in Bahrain centers on F1’s future engine formula -- ahead of the meeting on Friday to discuss a mooted return to V10 engines. Although there is “support from a couple of teams to go back to that engine formula in a few years from now” and cut short the new power unit cycle starting in 2026, to make such a “major change would require unanimous backing.” This is “highly unlikely to be reached.” Smith added there is also a “desire for stability that, as Russell highlighted, is not on display from the FIA right now, creating the ‘what next?’ feeling he relayed” (THE ATHLETIC, 4/11).
