The president of the FIA does not walk with half measures. Last week, Bloomberg reported of a purchase offer to Formula 1, rejected, by Saudi Arabia and which reached 20,000 million euros. Now, Mohammed Ben Sulayem responds directly on Twitter to these rumors questioning the probable excess of inflation in the sale value that the championship could reach. “As guardians of motorsport, the FIA, as a non-profit organization, is wary of the inflated prices of 20 billion dollars (about 20,000 million euros, adapting the Anglo-Saxon billion) placed on F1,” the Emirati leader pointed out.
“Any potential buyer should apply common sense and consider the good of the sport, in addition to arriving with a clear and sustainable plan, not just a huge amount of money. It is our duty to consider the future impact for promoters in terms of ‘hosting fees’ (the fee to organize races) and other commercial costs, in addition to the adverse impact it could have on fans”, underlines Ben Sulayem in three tweets written by successive way.
Beyond the possible differences in criteria that this may air between the FIA and Liberty Media, owner of the F1 commercial rights, it is clear that the FIA president, who succeeded Jean Todt in 2021, says what he thinks. He also did it a few weeks ago due to the misgivings of some manufacturers to the medium-term entry of Cadillac, associated with Andretti, on the World Cup grid. In any case, Liberty Media has never stated, at least publicly, that they intend to sell the championship they bought from Bernie Ecclestone in 2016.