Mohammed Ben Sulayem

[NoUserNameAvailable]

languagetimothy said:

and WTF does this mean? a quirk in the rules?

To be able to stand for election as FIA President you have to be nominated by seven vice presidents across set regions. There is only one in South America who happens to be Bernie Ecclestones wife and a supporter of Sulayem so no-one could stand against him.

[vaud]

languagetimothy said:

yep, was reading that. how can there be one of highest positions in the sport that cant effectively be voted on. and WTF does this mean? a quirk in the rules?

"The move would enable the 64-year-old Emirati - who was re-elected unopposed in December as a result of a quirk in election rules that prevented anyone else from standing - to continue as president beyond the current 12-year limit."

fk me these dictators are everywhere

The FIA model places votes in ways that can be easily manipulated

There are roughly 245 member organizations spread across nearly 150 countries.
Each country can have up to two votes: one representing its Sport authority and one representing its Mobility club.
The Equality of Votes: Crucially, the voting power is equal. The tiny automobile club of a small island nation has the exact same voting weight as massive, multi-million-member clubs like Germany's ADAC or America's AAA.

So if the President offers members from Botswana, Eritrea, Antigua, Libya, Iran, Iraq, etc a nice "get to know the FIA in Paris" event and some kind of sinecure.. guess which way they vote...

[TheDeuce]

vaud said:

The FIA model places votes in ways that can be easily manipulated

There are roughly 245 member organizations spread across nearly 150 countries.
Each country can have up to two votes: one representing its Sport authority and one representing its Mobility club.
The Equality of Votes: Crucially, the voting power is equal. The tiny automobile club of a small island nation has the exact same voting weight as massive, multi-million-member clubs like Germany's ADAC or America's AAA.

So if the President offers members from Botswana, Eritrea, Antigua, Libya, Iran, Iraq, etc a nice "get to know the FIA in Paris" event and some kind of sinecure.. guess which way they vote...

Indeed. The reason he can do what he wants unchallenged is chiefly that virtually everyone with a vote loves what he's doing - for them.

That plus the fact that there were no safeguards at the FIA to prevent his taking over, because in his position he had the power to change every rule that got in his was. They never had any defences in place to deal with 'attack from within'.

So, nothing in place to stop him and no will to do so anyway.

[vaud]

Only F1 threatening to break away and create their own, non FIA sanctioned series, might influence him - given that F1 funds the FIA.

[TheDeuce]

vaud said:

Only F1 threatening to break away and create their own, non FIA sanctioned series, might influence him - given that F1 funds the FIA.

Good luck finding circuits. Circuits could choose to also break away from the FIA and host F1 of course... But it'd be the only event they ever host.

Also would require a new governing body to be setup that couldn't be part of the new 'F1', it has to be independent and somehow financed.

It could technically work, but the reality is that Liberty would need to be paying for everything at a high rate and it could be many years before they see a profit again.

I'm certain that most stakeholders would rather ignore the presence of the blatant dictator at the the FIA and simply not upset the cash cow.

[vaud]

TheDeuce said:

Good luck finding circuits. Circuits could choose to also break away from the FIA and host F1 of course... But it'd be the only event they ever host.

Also would require a new governing body to be setup that couldn't be part of the new 'F1', it has to be independent and somehow financed.

It could technically work, but the reality is that Liberty would need to be paying for everything at a high rate and it could be many years before they see a profit again.

I'm certain that most stakeholders would rather ignore the presence of the blatant dictator at the the FIA and simply not upset the cash cow.

Its possible, but I agree improbable. F1 holds some cards in negotiations. Not sure if the FIA can punish a circuit for hosting a non FIA race? That would strike me as anti-competitive and at least in Europe the kind of thing that the EU like to look at?

[thegreenhell]

vaud said:

Its possible, but I agree improbable. F1 holds some cards in negotiations. Not sure if the FIA can punish a circuit for hosting a non FIA race? That would strike me as anti-competitive and at least in Europe the kind of thing that the EU like to look at?

The way it's going, Liberty would probably be happy to run exclusively on stty temporary street circuits anyway, and not have to deal with those pesky legacy racing circuits with all their history and established fanbases.

[TheDeuce]

vaud said:

Its possible, but I agree improbable. F1 holds some cards in negotiations. Not sure if the FIA can punish a circuit for hosting a non FIA race? That would strike me as anti-competitive and at least in Europe the kind of thing that the EU like to look at?

The FIA would find ways to steer other motorsport away from dissenting circuits. If it ever actually happened, they probably wouldn't need to do so for very long before the wheels fell off the new 'F1' effort.

All hypothetical of course, nobody knows how it would play out legally which is one of many reasons I'm sure very few would ever contemplate trying.

[TheDeuce]

thegreenhell said:

vaud said:

Its possible, but I agree improbable. F1 holds some cards in negotiations. Not sure if the FIA can punish a circuit for hosting a non FIA race? That would strike me as anti-competitive and at least in Europe the kind of thing that the EU like to look at?

The way it's going, Liberty would probably be happy to run exclusively on stty temporary street circuits anyway, and not have to deal with those pesky legacy racing circuits with all their history and established fanbases.

Yes the one safe type of circuit would be new and existing street circuits, as they generally don't need the support of any other series to make sense.

But on the other hand... they only currently make sense because F1 is a sumisable blockbuster sport that brings money into each city. Any new breakaway series would need to somehow offer the same impact overnight - which sounds impossible.

[WilsonWilson]

The chance of a breakaway is probably the lowest in many decades.

Liberty are far more risk averse than Ecclestone and even he was mostly - it's FOM and FIA together. The teams are useless at sticking together and have seen incomes rise, costs fall and valuations rocket.

MBS isn't really responsible for the recent success of F1 but he isn't a serious threat to it either.

[Eau301]

If MBS goes then so does Shaila-Ann Rao - Mercedes are riding high again as a result.