[Rules] The FIA - what's occurring there?

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by peebee2

I sold a house in 2002. Maybe I should go back now and claim I should have sold it for more?

Truth is you really wouldn't want the FIA in charge of anything at all if you had a free choice...

They seem to administer licencing, that the person or entity complies with whatever training, education and timing requirements of variously approved FIA rules & regulations of engagement, with some degree of accuracy.

Although I bet someone clever could outsource this to a country with lower cost to serve and get the same outcomes…

[Tourer]

Reportedly a reshuffle of the F1 team at FIA coming up. If true, quite telling that someone who knows his stuff, has "been there and done that" such as Steve Neilsen is choosing to get out after only 1 year.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by Tourer

Reportedly a reshuffle of the F1 team at FIA coming up. If true, quite telling that someone who knows his stuff, has "been there and done that" such as Steve Neilsen is choosing to get out after only 1 year.

Agree that this is likely an indication of internal problems/drama. It would seem that the obvious cause is MBS and whatever organizational culture and management style that he has brought with him. It would seem unlikely that he will reverse course and will bring in more who either agree with him, or are willing to be subservient to his direction. The big question is... what he is building be successful? If you are pushing out highly qualified people, the answer is probably "no". So then the follow up question is... how long until there is a course correction?

Richard

[chunterer]

So it seems many are assuming that the current President is keen to try and get F1 more under the control of the FIA than it is now?

He is railing against the FOM and the overly powerful team bosses.

Regardless of current agreements, is that necessarily a bad thing?

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by chunterer

So it seems many are assuming that the current President is keen to try and get F1 more under the control of the FIA than it is now?

He is railing against the FOM and the overly powerful team bosses.

Regardless of current agreements, is that necessarily a bad thing?

Is the goal more power for the governance side or less power for commercial side? That sounds like the same thing (heads I win, tails you lose), and at it's simplest it is, but I think there is a difference. I hope that makes sense.

My personal opinion is that "manufactures" have too much control. And maybe FOM is too influential in specific ways. But I wonder as to exactly what MBS's actual goals are.

But lets say we are aligned on goals and his desires are pure and positive. I think "how" he is going about this is not helping.

Richard

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by chunterer

So it seems many are assuming that the current President is keen to try and get F1 more under the control of the FIA than it is now?

He is railing against the FOM and the overly powerful team bosses.

Regardless of current agreements, is that necessarily a bad thing?

It's really hard to give a simple answer to that one, because you'd have to say that the last time that F1 was truly under FIA control was in the 80s (& the early 80s at that). Really from the time that Bernie got serious, the FIA was in far less "control" of F1 generally although I guess that the direct control over tech regs remained for some time after that.

I'm actually not convinced that MBS wants more control, it feels to me that what he wants for the FIA is more money, based on some of the things he's said.

I would imagine that a discussion on that could be had with FOM, along with spelling out the reasons why (increased cost of officiating via the team in Geneva for example, compliance team for cost cap as another example) and might get what he's looking for without the need for all the "strong arm" political crap.

[crmalcolm]

'Tim Goss: Leading engineer becomes third senior figure to quit FIA'

'Leading engineer Tim Goss has left his role as the single-seater technical director of motorsport's governing body the FIA, BBC Sport can reveal.

Goss, who is expected to join a Formula 1 team, is the third senior figure to quit the FIA in the last month.

His resignation follows that of sporting director Steve Nielsen and the departure of the head of the FIA's commission for women, Deborah Mayer.'

So - who is going to be the first principal to complain about Goss's move and taking inside knowledge to a rival?

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

So - who is going to be the first principal to complain about Goss's move and taking inside knowledge to a rival?

I was thinking the same thing.

How does gardening leave work? I assume the current employer (who has secrets to protect) will include a specific non-compete that would cover other F1 teams for a period of time. And that the employee will ask for some type of compensation for that concession? I guess depending upon who you are (i.e. Adrian Newey), that compensation might be significant (1yr full salary?) while lesser beings might get little or nothing? How does that work for teams? If you recruit someone, might the compensation also work in reverse? You want someone, you then pay for their gardening leave and have some type of contract that says they need to stay for X period of time or otherwise they would need to repay for that gardening leave compensation? What is the standard practice for how this works in F1?

And how might this work for FIA? Does this even happen with ex-FIA employees? I can't say who, but I think I remember something like this happening before and there was a gardening leave for the ex-FIA member? I mean if you are privy to all of the private discussion as to all of the tricks teams are trying (it is my understanding they will sometimes ask FIA in advance if something is OK or not) as well as examination of current cars, that this would be a wealth of knowledge to carry with you to a team. I don't know enough about FIA internal structure to know if this guy would know these details or not.

Richard

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Richard C

I don't know enough about FIA internal structure to know if this guy would know these details or not.

Richard

In short - the Technical Director is responsible for overseeing all technical matters.

Every Team's Technical Director has a defined role in the Sporting Code 'the person responsible for ensuring that the Competitor complies with the World
Championship technical regulations'. Effectively, Goss would have 'owned' these regulations.

Whether he knows/knew every trick each team was trying to play is unclear. But he would definitely have details of every car's technical specifications available to him, and would (more crucially) know what differs between each car.
The timing (in relation to other threads) is very interesting from a technical perspective. He has effectively owned the 2026 technical regulations up to now, and has first-hand knowledge of every team's homologated 2024 car design.

[Richard C]

More departures at FIA

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f...tion/10573120/

There is always some level of organizational staffing churn. Based upon the article it doesn't sound as if these are negatively related to MBS? But who knows. Maybe the two leaving thought "now is the time for a change" and decided to leave. Regardless, it seems like a period of lots of staffing change at FIA

Richard

[Akrapovic]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/68465516

Can we just get rid of Ben Sulayem already? He's brought nothing to the sport other than corruption.

[TWRv12]

Idiot tweeted a photo of Prince Andrew from 2004 at the weekend:

https://twitter.com/thomasmaheronf1/...66555480150276


What chance Robert Reid takes over?

[chillibowl]

not to downplay the significance of very real abuses of power which do affect real people in real ways and all that...but the sheer banality of all of these current mini scandals is just not interesting.

abuse your control to illegally force through a raft of regulation changes that upset the RB cart so much that we may get an interesting season already!

i miss Max the Benrie show!

*said in jest but also not really!

[Richard C]

Maybe Susie Wolff should be in charge of the investigation! Turn about is fair play.

Richard

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by Richard C

Maybe Susie Wolff should be in charge of the investigation! Turn about is fair play.

Richard

Only if she has a concussion that prevents her for having to do anything important, except get involved in other peoples business.

[Richard C]

It's been crazy recently...

Andretti/GM told "no" by FOM
Lewis to Ferrari
Horny Horner drama
MBS tries to manipulate F1 race results

What is next?

Houthi fighters storm the circuit during the race this weekend?
Max retires?
Lando gets his first win?
Ferrari sells itself to Geely and exits F1?

Richard

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by Richard C

It's been crazy recently...

Andretti/GM told "no" by FOM
Lewis to Ferrari
Horny Horner drama
MBS tries to manipulate F1 race results

What is next?

Houthi fighters storm the circuit during the race this weekend?
Max retires?
Lando gets his first win?
Ferrari sells itself to Geely and exits F1?

Richard

Wasn't it the Houthis who attacked with rockets before?

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

not to downplay the significance of very real abuses of power which do affect real people in real ways and all that...but the sheer banality of all of these current mini scandals is just not interesting.

Agree - for sure it is always important to not interfere with the judiciary but in this case may have only be alerting them to the rear jack question not being resolved, assuming that the message was even delivered. Not a particular fan of MBS but this does have the feel of a cyclone in a thimble.

Originally Posted by Richard C

Maybe Susie Wolff should be in charge of the investigation! Turn about is fair play.

Now THERE'S an idea!

As always, presumption of innocence applies until proven otherwise but it's so weird that all these "scandals" are popping up.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by peebee2

Wasn't it the Houthis who attacked with rockets before?

Yes it was. I was just cranking the drama up by having them physically storm the circuit!

Richard

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by Richard C

It's been crazy recently...

Andretti/GM told "no" by FOM
Lewis to Ferrari
Horny Horner drama
MBS tries to manipulate F1 race results

What is next?

Houthi fighters storm the circuit during the race this weekend?
Max retires?
Lando gets his first win?
Ferrari sells itself to Geely and exits F1?

Richard

How about Head of FIA named in alleged F1 Race Result Tampering event

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

How about Head of FIA named in alleged F1 Race Result Tampering event

Yes, that is #4 on my current list of crazy. Just labelled differently. It seems like something new every few days.

Richard

[Akrapovic]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/68478049

Mohammed Ben Sulayem: FIA president allegedly told officials not to certify Las Vegas GP

[Sodemo]

That guy has to go. Gawd knows why he was appointed in the first place.

[Greem]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/68478049

Mohammed Ben Sulayem: FIA president allegedly told officials not to certify Las Vegas GP

Originally Posted by BBC Article

BBC Sport has learned that other officials present at the time have a different recollection of the events from the whistleblower.

When will it all end?

[chillibowl]

Soap operas never end!