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

[flatlandsman]

I have no issue with people using colourful language, all the FIA are worried about are sponsors and shareholders and tv companies, the people that pay for everything basically, I am sure most fans could not give the slightest toss about a diver swearing.

I do have a problem with tv people apologising to me about it, it is not their fault they are not responsible for what people say, OK they are the broadcaster but why apologise to me for another person swearing it is beyond ridiculous and always has been in my eyes. You cannot CONTROL their life any more than you can control mine so why apologise.

Oddly the tv people seem less than concerned about broadcasting team radio with swearing bleeped out, which is basically a kop out anyway to make sure nobody complains to them when it is blatantly obvious what has been said, they seem less then concerned about showing that ON SCREEN in text format.

Yet when a drivers messes up and does it live he has to be treated like he has committed a heinous crime. Double standards for me too there.

[Tourer]

MBS says that the FIA doesn't get enough credit and is rubbished too much - has (yet another) moan about money while he's at it.

Predictable and similar to what we've heard from him before - seems like he wants to portray himself and the FIA as some kind of "victim". So, in regard to his points on things that the FIA has improved or on the FIA position in general, there are always counter points:

The remote operations centre was only set up under duress when the FIA accepted that it had over-loaded a small F1 race management team (& one person in particular) and should have done much more, many years earlier. To be fair, MBS walked into that as the new guy & was stuck with sorting out a solution.

The training and development of senior officials & the new officials department are not new - that has been happening for years, with (for example) the Australian ASN training officials in several countries where motor sport is new(ish). What is new is that the FIA has seen the income to be made from it and now taken it all for itself.

The track limits solution is fair enough but should have happened years earlier and easily could have if we're honest.

His suggestion that the FIA was operating in the red financially has been strongly refuted by Jean Todt previously.

He IS right though, that sports governing bodies tend not to get so much credit, but do get the brickbats when things go wrong, but that's the way of the world, is life and how it is in the grown up world - time he simply got on with it sensibly IMHO.

[chillibowl]

Hopefully his swear job initiative gets them back into the black!

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

Hopefully his swear job initiative gets them back into the black!

Some analysis here from Autosport. Essentially has a similar conclusion to my thoughts - it is what it is and MBS needs to get used to it.

[Richard C]

Petulant is the word that comes to mind.

Richard

[flatlandsman]

Let us be honest here, every F1 driver and most team bosses are unbelievably petulant, they have been allowed to be by their teams and the stewards respectively, some of the stuff drivers say is cringeworthy and to use an awful comparison reminds me of footballers rolling around and the like.

Not all of them do it, but we all know the main candidates, and when you hear it you die inside a little!! And again, a bad example to set for the supposed billions of new fans watching

[Tourer]

MBS: The British media "convicted me". I'm beginning to think that maybe he really is trying to model himself on Balestre.

[steve_r]

Some of the British media are appalling. That does not mean that some of the issues raised are without merit.
(Some of the British media are excellent too).

All I see in that interview is a very very powerful man portraying himself as a downtrodden victim fighting against the machine. It's rather nauseating to read.

[Greem]

Originally Posted by MBS in Autosport

"I respect Max [Verstappen] because I'm a driver. I was a champion and I respect winners and champions," he said. "I see he had his share [of mistreatment], but let's talk about me."

That's it. That's the point. He keeps on making it all about him, so there's no surprise (to me) when any press or driver comments on his outpourings.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by Greem

That's it. That's the point. He keeps on making it all about him, so there's no surprise (to me) when any press or driver comments on his outpourings.

Also let's be clear here, he was a rally driver. He won the Middle East Rally Championship. He entered WRC and scored a grand total of 12 points over 7 years.

Whilst there is nothing wrong with winning the Middle East Rally Championship and scoring points in WRC, his achievements are absolutely nothing compared to Max Verstappen.

This is like Charlie Cox comparing himself to Lewis Hamilton because he won a British GT title and entered some BTCC. "Oh I'm a champion too!" (No disrespect to Charlie of course)

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by Greem

That's it. That's the point. He keeps on making it all about him, so there's no surprise (to me) when any press or driver comments on his outpourings.

I was going to quote the same thing!

I had a few takeaways from the article...

1. Lets talk about me!

2. I am on par with Max and Seb

3. A bit of "dog whistle" to his political base regarding what I might label as push back against traditional Eurocentric motorsports influence. See the quote below...

With due respect to the British media or any other media, they don't have a vote. We are an independent, democratic federation. It's the world of membership that elected me. The power is with the General Assembly, not with them

An attack on him is an attack on those who supported him. Which I believe he heavily courted votes outside of Europe. It sounds like a good start for his re-election campaign as his term is up end of next year. I can expect his campaign will focus on how he has a target on his back as he is an "outsider" and not part of the "status quo" and how "they" are trying to stop him from implementing our (his) vision for the future!

Richard

[chillibowl]

Hopefully one of the drivers shows up wearing a ‘let’s talk about me’ tshirt!

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

Hopefully one of the drivers shows up wearing a ‘let’s talk about me’ tshirt!

That would be funny. I am wondering what we might see at COTA regarding use of foul language. I don't expect we will see it on the official broadcast, but I suspect social media is going to show various fan related responses to MBS.

Richard

[Greem]

One other thing of note is that the previous presidents quietly (for the most part) got on with an awful lot of stuff away from motorsport - the mobility, safety, accessibility and sustainability efforts that the FIA have and continue to run have given us things like the EuroNCAP standards (Mosley), Action for Road Safety (Todt), the Road Safety Grants Programme etc etc.

Although the FIA governs world motorsport - well, some of it anyway - there's far more to it than just racing. I'm not seeing a lot of the current president being involved in those far less glamorous activities!

[chillibowl]

right! he seems to be nowhere on any of the traditional FIA campaigns which very much, and fairly so imo, further undermines his credibility when he instead chooses to go after things like driver clothing choices and bad language.

from what i understand, Formula E has made some recent announcements towards promoting women in motorsports...curious to know where MBS is on this initiative and/or will he push for F1 teams/other categories to follow suit?

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

from what i understand, Formula E has made some recent announcements towards promoting women in motorsports...curious to know where MBS is on this initiative and/or will he push for F1 teams/other categories to follow suit?

He said he doesn't like women who think they are smarter than men, and then started a war with Susie Wolff (managing director of F1 Academy) and achieved something incredibly rare - the entire paddock uniting on a single topic and backing the Wolffs.

It's pretty clear where MBS stands on these initiatives.

[S griffin]

Really he’s just creating too much conflict and is making too much of the focus on him. But I guess that’s what he wants. Seems a very ego driven individual

[Richard C]

The question is... What does MBS say are his initiatives or goals he is looking to champion? If you look at news articles from just prior or around the time he was elected, he was running on an "FIA for Members" campaign.

https://www.emso.ae/news/mohammed-be...fia-president/

He campaigned under the banner “FIA for Members”, committing to double motor sport participation worldwide, strengthen diversity and inclusion and be a leading opinion-former on sustainable mobility.

To me those are somewhat vague goals other than to double motor sport participation worldwide. I can imagine that part might play out worldwide given it is reported he built a voting base in non-traditional motorsports strongholds such as Africa and elsewhere away from a classic European focus. If I were a voting member in (as an example) central America, I might think this means... he wants to help me (as a likely motorsports fan) increase motorsports activity here in my country! I can't argue against that.

But...

As to doubling motorsport participating worldwide. What if anything has happened here? What benefits might the historically neglected parts of the world received from his leadership? Anything?

As to diversity, maybe the first thing that comes to mind with respect to diversity in motorsports might gender diversity. It could mean that, but also could be trying to elevate other (or smaller) types of motorsports or series as well as an overall more inclusiveness. Is he doing anything in this area other than going backwards? I would generally say he is pushing a more conservative or prejudiced perspective which is the opposite of diversity. He seems to be Johnny-on-the-spot when it comes to the well established F1 series. He was for extra teams in F1 such as Andretti... until he back peddled and changed his stance. Is he doing anything for any other part of FIA governed series from a participation growth perspective?

As to "sustainable mobility" I think that is FIA speak for "traveling via sustainable methods" and not just motorsports, but all means of automotive travel. Note that prior to being FIA president, MBS was head of FIA "Mobility and Tourism" which focuses on "mobility public policy, motoring services, travel and tourism". What is he doing in this area other than supporting an already established goal via FOM for use of sustainable fuels in the new F1 technical regulations that would have happened with or without him.

Either he is getting stuff done and not tooting his own horn enough about those things, or he isn't really getting anything done and is just complaining about the the public criticism being directed towards him.

Richard

[Mike Harte]

To add to the FIA's woes, this from Motorsport.com:

The FIA has lost two of its senior figures, with its director of communications Luke Skipper and secretary general of mobility Jacob Bangsgaard resigning.
Both are said to have left the organisation to pursue other interests, but their departures come at a time when FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s style of leadership has again been in the spotlight.

MBS does seem to be rather careless about losing so many key/senior executives from the organisation.

[flatlandsman]

I personally don't think the man is driven by ego, I simply think he has led a very sheltered and privileged life and is simply showing himself to be rather naïve about a hell of a lot of tings as a result. Much like politicians who are groomed from an early age like Cameron, Osborne, Johnson, Blair.

They have no appreciation of real life even if they are working in an area where they have decades of experience

[S griffin]

I think some of his intentions has been good, like trying to add an 11th team. But perhaps at times he seems to have an unfortunate habit of making enemies. Maybe if he toned it down a bit, people would appreciate him more

[flatlandsman]

Again, I think a lot of it is due to his background and upbringing and basically being a prince for his entire life, he might not be blessed with the most diplomatic of personalities. Think weird like Michael Jackson or people like that rather than simply rude/ I might be wrong, as would have likely been privately educated in the UK, but does that mean he would lose that naivety? Maybe not

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by Richard C

...As to diversity, maybe the first thing that comes to mind with respect to diversity in motorsports might gender diversity. It could mean that, but also could be trying to elevate other (or smaller) types of motorsports or series as well as an overall more inclusiveness...

indeed! an excellent and nuanced distinction to make!

[Mike Harte]

The FIA has issued an edict to take affect from the US GP about concerns certain teams have that an unnamed team has been using a device on the front bib that can allow it to be altered between qualifying and the race, a period during which the cars are supposed to be under parc ferme rules.


See: https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f...rick/10663272/

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

The FIA has issued an edict to take affect from the US GP about concerns certain teams have that an unnamed team has been using a device on the front bib that can allow it to be altered between qualifying and the race, a period during which the cars are supposed to be under parc ferme rules.


See: https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f...rick/10663272/

That'll be an orange car from surrey then.