‘I have no other job… I left our [UAE] federation, I left the [UAE] Olympic Committee. I have only the FIA, my passion is here, my heart is here’
There’s no doubt Mohammed Ben Sulayem has endured a turbulent introduction to the FIA presidency. Elected on 17 December, less than a week after the debacle that was the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, as replacement for Jean Todt who had reached both age (75) and term (three) limits, Ben Sulayem’s prime task was to institute the enquiry announced by the outgoing president into the events of the F1 season finale.
Having won the vote by 62 per cent to the 36 per cent (with a two per cent abstention factor) garnered for ex-deputy president for sport, Graham Stoker, his incoming administration faced the devil’s alternative: given the divisiveness of the matter, they would be damned either way in the court of fan opinion.
Compounding the situation was the thorny question of sanctioning Lewis Hamilton for boycotting the prizegiving gala, as required by protocol.
Then, within the first 100 days, MBS, as he is referred to informally, and his cabinet discovered the FIA was staring a €25m annual deficit squarely in the face. A month later, he is staring Lewis Hamilton down over the latter’s very public refusal to comply with the sport’s jewellery regulations.
Inheritance tax
‘I inherited a lot of things,’ he exclusively tells during the Miami Grand Prix in the first full-length media interview he has granted since
