Mohammed Ben Sulayem to step back from day-to-day F1 duties as FIA president ahead of 2023 season
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Published 08/02/2023 at 16:52 GMT
In a letter to Formula 1’s teams, Mohammed Ben Sulayem says he will step back from his direct involvement in the sport. The FIA’s director of single-seater racing Nikolas Tombazis will now be the point of contact for the 2023 season, which begins with the Bahrain Grand Prix at the start of March. Sylayem became president in December 2021, taking over from Jean Todt.
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FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has revealed he will step back from day-to-day duties in Formula 1.
The news comes amid an apparent battle between Sulayem and F1’s owners Liberty Media after the latter called out the 61-year-old for discussing the value of the sport on social media and a disagreement on free speech.
Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA’s director of single-seater racing, will now be the point of contact for F1’s 10 teams.
"My stated objective was to be a non-executive president via the recruitment of a team of professional managers, which has now been largely completed,” read Sulayem’s letter to the teams.
"Therefore, going forward, your day-to-day contact for all matters on F1 will be with Nikolas and his team, while I will focus on strategic matters with my leadership team."
Before becoming FIA president at the end of 2021, Sulayem stated he wanted to give the day-to-day roles to someone else as part of a restructure.
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It’s not clear whether this move is part of that plan or if it’s a reaction to the latest off-track politics in F1.
An FIA spokesperson told the BBC: "The president's manifesto clearly set out this plan before he was elected - it pledged ‘the appointment of an FIA CEO to provide an integrated and aligned operation,’ as well as to ‘introduce a revised governance framework’ under ‘a leadership team focused on transparency, democracy, and growth’.
"These goals, as well as the announcement of the new structure of the single-seater department, have been planned since the beginning of this presidency.
"The FIA president has a wide remit that covers the breadth of global motor sport and mobility, and now that the structural reorganisation in Formula 1 is complete, this is a natural next step."
The 2023 Formula 1 season begins with the Bahrain Grand Prix from March 3-5.
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