Has FIA president been playing clever game unseen by F1 press/media?

[John S]

All the flak being directed at President Ben Sulayem by F1 pundits and press core may have missed a vital point, good financial governance is attractive to worldwide motorsport clubs who were responsible for voting him in; they can do so again next year.

There is more to the FIA than F1 and the President has to mind & support all levels of motorsport & motoring.
F1 may be it's worldwide shop window but the way F1s spoils are divided is decidedly very lopsided in favour of the commercial rights holder rather than it's true owner, the FIA.

Maybe Liberty will not like this good financial governance news, after all they appear to regularly stoke up bad feeling about Ben Sulayem.
Every week, or so it seems, we have been fed countless accounts of run ins, supposed indiscretions & firings by the FIA President. Whilst there has undoubtedly been frictions inside FIA it always seems to make headline news, where as the strange fiasco of Liberty stone walling Andretti's legitimate bid, due to one mans hatred of the other, got almost no press.           

https://racingnews365.com/fia-reports-staggering-financial-turnaround

[Alianora La Canta]

Unfortunately he has also made some mis-steps that put the FIA in serious legal jeopardy, including the vote for removing certain levels of scrutiny that, as a French organisation, the FIA is legally required to possess. The fees and fines that would entail could easily undo all that work.

It does have to be said that Jean Todt did a poor job of financial management of the FIA. I wasn't impressed by him either.

[Jericoke]

The FIA is many things to many people.  Historically the FIA, and its member organizations, have been part of motorsport regulation.

There is no reason for them to do that. F1 can handle its own rule book, it's own safety measures.  Let the FIA remain in charge of whatever they do outside of motorsport, and let F1 be in charge of F1.

[lkjohnson1950]

Won't happen. FIA needs the money F1 brings in.

[John S]

The FIA is many things to many people.  Historically the FIA, and its member organizations, have been part of motorsport regulation.

There is no reason for them to do that. F1 can handle its own rule book, it's own safety measures.  Let the FIA remain in charge of whatever they do outside of motorsport, and let F1 be in charge of F1.

You seem to have lost sight of FIAs ownership of F1 Jeri, they're in the unfortunate situation of being shafted by the EU requiring a split in governance & commercial sections, followed by pillage with a 100 year lease by Bernie, aided by Max Mosley who was President of FIA at time.

From the bad deal done years ago FIA have a very paltry share of the spoils from their own property. In any case the minimal percentage of F1s turnover or profit fed to FIA probably accounts for maybe as much as 70% of FIA total income, they can't walk away.

There is already the F1 commission which is a joint affair between FIA, Liberty/FOM & teams, this hybrid assembly already has overview & powers in most rule making for F1. This commission was agreed about 10 years back in exchange for a few million dollars (N.B. not hundreds of millions) more revenue from FOM to balance FIA books.
I'm amazed that no one from EU hasn't challenged this so called commission for breaching the clear split intended with separation of Rules/Regs/Governance and commercial side.   

The EU has left all other Sports alone, Football rule makers keep all the massive commercial revenues, same for Olympics, Golf, Rugby. All those rule makers go from strength to strength despite controversies and claims of corruption in many areas. 

Only one in similar position is MotoGP which also has separated FIM regs maker & a commercial arm - currently Dorna, soon to be Liberty if EU clears deal. 

[Alianora La Canta]

The FIA is many things to many people.  Historically the FIA, and its member organizations, have been part of motorsport regulation.

There is no reason for them to do that. F1 can handle its own rule book, it's own safety measures.  Let the FIA remain in charge of whatever they do outside of motorsport, and let F1 be in charge of F1.

You seem to have lost sight of FIAs ownership of F1 Jeri, they're in the unfortunate situation of being shafted by the EU requiring a split in governance & commercial sections, followed by pillage with a 100 year lease by Bernie, aided by Max Mosley who was President of FIA at time.

From the bad deal done years ago FIA have a very paltry share of the spoils from their own property. In any case the minimal percentage of F1s turnover or profit fed to FIA probably accounts for maybe as much as 70% of FIA total income, they can't walk away.

There is already the F1 commission which is a joint affair between FIA, Liberty/FOM & teams, this hybrid assembly already has overview & powers in most rule making for F1. This commission was agreed about 10 years back in exchange for a few million dollars (N.B. not hundreds of millions) more revenue from FOM to balance FIA books.

I'm amazed that no one from EU hasn't challenged this so called commission for breaching the clear split intended with separation of Rules/Regs/Governance and commercial side.   

The EU has left all other Sports alone, Football rule makers keep all the massive commercial revenues, same for Olympics, Golf, Rugby. All those rule makers go from strength to strength despite controversies and claims of corruption in many areas. 

Force India brought a case to the Swiss Court of Arbitration, in 2015. Four years later, with no sign of it reaching the Swiss Court of Arbitration any time soon and needing to make new friends, the then-new owner Lawrence Stroll abandoned the case.

The EU needs someone with standing (so, not any of the British teams) to complain before it will act. Until recently, Ferrari had a veto it could use that it would have lost had it sent anything to the EU. RB isn't going to do anything Red Bull doesn't want and Red Bull can't afford to lose its standing with the FIA. Sauber has its own problems and Mattia Binotto's track record at Ferrari suggested he was put off by legal cases (even the relatively simple ones within the FIA framework). GM can't really act until its feet are under the F1 table.