Relations between the FIA and Formula 1 are experiencing another tense moment. Mohammed Ben Sulayem, President of the FIA, questioned last Monday through several tweets that the championship would have reached a value of 20,000 million dollars (a similar amount in euros). The origin of his statements was information from ‘Bloomberg’, which claimed that Liberty Media had rejected an offer to sell F1 for that amount to Saudi Arabia, and to which no estate had given official status.
However, Liberty Media has appreciated that the Emirati leader has exceeded his duties with that comment, judging with the legal warning that his lawyers have sent to the FIA, according to several media outlets yesterday.
“As guardians of motorsport, the FIA, as a non-profit organisation, is wary of inflated prices of $20 trillion (about 20,000 million euros, adapting the Anglo-Saxon trillion) put on F1. Any potential buyer should apply common sense and consider the good of the sport, as well as coming up 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,” Ben Sulayem had written on his profile. Twitter.
Formula 1 as a competition keeps the sports and organizational contingent (FIA) divided from the commercial (FOM), and these commercial rights have been owned by Liberty Media since they acquired them from Bernie Ecclestone in 2016. Until now they have not stated that they intend to sell In fact, the championship is expanding in the United States with three races (Miami, Austin and Las Vegas) that may be more in the medium term.
In any case, it is evident that Ben Sulayem and Domenicali, CEO of F1 (Liberty), do not always agree and the FIA president has no qualms about speaking up and standing his ground. He already did it at the beginning of the year to defend the Andretti-Cadillac project against the suspicion of other teams and the feeling of indifference on the part of FOM. And that’s without going into F1 complaints every time the FIA regulations have been convoluted during a grand prix. Although it is expected that the incorporation of Steve Nielsen as sports director of the FIA, coming from Liberty, will serve to guide at least the sports plot.