Mohammed Ben Sulayem launches a new attack against Liberty Media: "I am still convinced of my idea"

Mohammed Ben Sulayem launches a new attack against Liberty Media: “I am still convinced of my idea”. Mohammed Ben Sulayem launched a new attack against Liberty Media.

An interesting season looms ahead, with the FIA and Formula 1 gearing up for a battle. During a recent press conference, FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem launched a fresh attack against Liberty Media.

Following some disagreements that took center stage in 2023, the battle between the FIA and Formula 1 doesn’t seem to have subsided. On one side is the federation aiming for a top tier with more excitement, involving more players. On the other side, there’s Liberty Media and FOM looking to “entertain” the world of Formula 1. After a few months of “veiled peace,” Mohammed Ben Sulayem has returned to the offensive against the ideas of Formula 1 and Liberty Media.

The latest heated confrontation between the two entities dates back to the end of January when Formula 1 denied entry into the top tier to Andretti. A move that, previously, had received approval from the FIA, with the governing body endorsing the documents submitted by GM and Andretti. After this approval, it seemed easy to get the green light from the FOM, but that wasn’t the case. The reasons behind the American giant’s “rejection” are still unknown, but the statements included in the press release have a taste of an attack on the FIA. A decision that heated up the tensions between the FIA and Andretti, with the latter reportedly ready to pursue legal action. However, this issue was promptly set aside by the bombshell news of Lewis Hamilton joining Ferrari, but behind the scenes, it still seems alive and ready to stir up discussions.

During the Geneva Motor Show, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, President of the FIA, also spoke about the opposing visions between F1 and the FIA.

“I have always said that I am convinced that we should have more teams rather than more races.” These were the comments released by the president to Speedweek, where he later added, “As the FIA, we have examined the Andretti-Cadillac application in all details and approved it. But we are responsible only for the sporting part and not the commercial one.”

This further illustrates the FIA’s desire to bring more teams onto the track, but without Formula 1’s approval, it all becomes more challenging. After all, even the teams have done everything to avoid the arrival of an eleventh team to prevent further revenue sharing.