FIA President Sticks to His Guns, Despite Max Verstappen’s Strong Opposition to Radical F1 Changes.
Mohammed Ben Sulayem is fighting Tim Mayer for re-election as the president of the FIA, and the Emirati has clear ideas for how he wants to grow Formula 1 in the future.
Mayer announced before the British Grand Prix that he will run against Ben Sulayem to head up the governing body in this year’s election process. Ben Sulayem took over from Jean Todt back in 2021 after earning 62% of the votes, but his tenure has often been hit with backlash.
Claims have regularly been aimed at Ben Sulayem that the 63-year-old has eyed changes to FIA statutes to enhance his control as its president. Some of the changes that Ben Sulayem has desired are also thought to have made it harder to challenge his pursuit of re-election.
Ben Sulayem has also faced opposition from the Formula 1 paddock over some of his ideas to grow the championship. Mercedes chief Toto Wolff firmly opposed Ben Sulayem’s failed suggestion to return to V10 engines, but he remains eager to consider alternative changes.
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Mohammed Ben Sulayem believes F1 needs ‘more races’ despite protests from the drivers
One of the alternative ideas that Ben Sulayem has for growing the pinnacle of motorsport is to add yet more races to the F1 calendar, which boasts a joint-record 24 Grands Prix in 2025. The schedule also features six F1 Sprint events, with the Belgian Grand Prix staging the next.
Ben Sulayem even believes F1 needs more races, despite some drivers pleading directly with the FIA president not to add any more rounds, and especially sees Africa as a market that F1 should race in. But he does not have a preference to race in Rwanda, as has been claimed.
Ben Sulayem told Formule1.NL: “No! Not for Rwanda, but for Africa. You know, I still believe we need more teams and more races. It’s just that the drivers came to me earlier and said, ‘Please, no more races’. Twenty-four races are too much of a burden for them.
“But Africa, as a continent, has always been somewhat forgotten. I’m proud that last year, for the first time in FIA history, we held the General Assembly in Rwanda.”
Max Verstappen thinks a 24-round F1 calendar is already ‘way over the limit’
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Ben Sulayem lobbying to expand the F1 calendar beyond the current 24 Grands Prix and six Sprint events will not go down well with a host of drivers, including Max Verstappen of Red Bull. The four-time F1 drivers’ championship winner already feels the calendar is too much.
F1 staged its first 24-round calendar in 2024, which tempted Verstappen to state that it was ‘way over the limit’ and ‘not sustainable’. The Dutchman was not alone in suggesting that the calendar had reached a problematic level, either, as Carlos Sainz also outlined his concerns.
“I think we’re already at the limit of the number of races that team personnel, drivers, F1, people in F1 [and] journalists etc can take during the year,” Sainz said, via The Race in 2024.
“If you want to have family back home to go and see, and to keep in touch with your home, it doesn’t matter if it’s family [or] if it’s your dog.
“It’s just on the limit of being too much, and I really hope it just doesn’t go much higher than 24 because, if not, I think it’s going to be very tricky for everyone.”
