FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem said via Twitter yesterday that he is not served by the bid of 20 billion from Saudi Arabia for F1. Ben Sulayem argued that such a bid would jeopardize the future of the sport, but F1 bosses have reacted furiously to the FIA president’s lash.
According to the F1 bosses, the FIA and chairman Mohammed Ben Sulayem are going beyond their limits by stating that it is about an “inflated bid”. Moreover, in Formula 1 they believe that they have the exclusive right to the commercial aspect of Formula 1 and the FIA is therefore not involved in this.
A flaming letter has been sent from Formula 1 via their lawyers to the FIA and chairman Mohammed Ben Sulayem. In addition, the letter was also sent to the teams.
“Formula 1 has the exclusive right to exploit the commercial rights of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship,” the letter read.
“The FIA has also unequivocally committed that they will not interfere with the ownership, management and/or exploitation of those rights.”
“We believe that these comments, which were made on the official social media account of the FIA president, infringe these rights in an unacceptable manner.”
Liberty Media also says that the FIA chairman is not allowed to comment on a listed company and make all kinds of claims that seem to indicate insider information. It therefore threatens that any damage caused to Formula 1 or the value of Liberty Media Corporation could hold the FIA and its chairman responsible.
The mutual relationship between the FIA and Formula 1 has been under high tension for some time. The relationship between the FIA and F1 will undoubtedly not have improved in recent days …