Can it get any worse?
Discussion
The slippery slope continues.
Motorsport's governing body wants to change its rules to limit the ways its leadership can be held to account for bad governance.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/articles/cy89...
I used to love this sport.
Motorsport's governing body wants to change its rules to limit the ways its leadership can be held to account for bad governance.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/articles/cy89...
I used to love this sport.
t show.MitchT said:
Dingu said:
F1 would be best off pulling out of FIA jurisdiction. All teams and everyone leave with Liberty and set their own thing up.
I recall decades ago wondering why F1 had to be governed by the FIA. Why do they?I expect there could be a boring legal reason but if the promoter, all teams/drivers etc move then even if technically the FIA are left holding “Formula 1” then they have nothing of value left.
MitchT said:
I recall decades ago wondering why F1 had to be governed by the FIA. Why do they?
As I understand it, the EU get a little twitchy whenever the regulation of a large industry is done by the industry itself. So to ward off any official investigations into exactly what goes on behind the curtain, F1 needed to be regulated by an organisation that is on-paper independent from F1.As the FIA already existed, it was easier to 'buy' the FIA through substantial entry 'fees' than it was to set up a new governance & regulatory organisation from scratch.
It may be that the calculus has changed, with MBS firing everyone who appears vaguely competent and with the stones to stand their ground against him.
I would not be shocked to hear the the F1 Regulatory Organisation (FRO) is set up shortly, and Liberty Media tell MBS to FRO!
There's enough good people who've been fired from the FIA, so staffing it would be a doddle! And I'm sure Liberty Media aren't short of a bob or two to pay for the lawyers who'll ensure that it's set up in such a way as to be sufficiently independent of F1 to pass muster with the EU bureaucrats.The FIA own 'Formula 1', 'Grand Prix' and 'World Championship' in the motorsport context, and only lease them to Liberty, so they would have to rebrand to something else.
It would effectively bring back the old FISA/FOCA war of the 1980s. Circuits would have to choose whether they wanted to be F1 circuits or FIA-accredited circuits for other uses, as no doubt they would be threatened with losing their FIA licences if they hosted the breakaway F1, and the manufacturers would have to take sides. It could all get quite messy.
It would effectively bring back the old FISA/FOCA war of the 1980s. Circuits would have to choose whether they wanted to be F1 circuits or FIA-accredited circuits for other uses, as no doubt they would be threatened with losing their FIA licences if they hosted the breakaway F1, and the manufacturers would have to take sides. It could all get quite messy.
There does appear to be real growing animosity and distrust towards the FIA leadership from the F1 teams and fans. I haven't heard much from Liberty on it but would presume they will not be happy with the instability.
Recently MBS (not to be confused with the other autocrat) has spoken of bringing the FIA into a positive profit, seemingly forgetting they are a non-profit organisation. He talks of the drivers and teams shouldn't be getting involved into the FIA administration, yet they have every right to know what is happening with the organisation that helps to ensure the safe running of the races to the rulebook. So often there appears a link between FIA instability and poor F1 regulation and safety, it needs to be better, and yet changing the rules so no one can speak up would be disastrous. Leading the FIA is not an autocracy as much as MBS would like it to be.
Alas, Ben Sulayem is due for reelection in '25 and will be allowed to run again in '29. He won in 2021 with more than 61pc of the vote and it appears with the current running of the organisation that you will need to be a pretty brave candidate to go up against him - not exactly democratic. We can only hope someone puts in a good challenge to stop the turmoil.
Recently MBS (not to be confused with the other autocrat) has spoken of bringing the FIA into a positive profit, seemingly forgetting they are a non-profit organisation. He talks of the drivers and teams shouldn't be getting involved into the FIA administration, yet they have every right to know what is happening with the organisation that helps to ensure the safe running of the races to the rulebook. So often there appears a link between FIA instability and poor F1 regulation and safety, it needs to be better, and yet changing the rules so no one can speak up would be disastrous. Leading the FIA is not an autocracy as much as MBS would like it to be.
Alas, Ben Sulayem is due for reelection in '25 and will be allowed to run again in '29. He won in 2021 with more than 61pc of the vote and it appears with the current running of the organisation that you will need to be a pretty brave candidate to go up against him - not exactly democratic. We can only hope someone puts in a good challenge to stop the turmoil.
WPA said:
Dingu said:
F1 would be best off pulling out of FIA jurisdiction. All teams and everyone leave with Liberty and set their own thing up.
They tried that years ago with FOTA and it did not workThe situation now is completely different.
Would be great if Sky F1 did a piece this weekend with a couple of lawyers actually explaining what the changes to the revisions to the statutes governing the audit and ethics committees would really mean in layman's terms and whether the changes would be legal for the governance of a non-profit. Don't know if they want to go into battle though.
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