Why Ben Sulayem looks set to win re-election as FIA president unopposed?

Any candidate’s hopes of unseating current FIA president Mohamed Ben Sulayem in December appear to be all but dashed, as it appears none of his rivals will be able to field a capable team.

Ben Sulayem is seeking a second four-year term as FIA president during the governing body’s general assembly held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on 12 December.

Along with the 63-year-old Emirati, three other potential candidates have come forward publicly, including former F1 steward Tim Mayer, Swiss racer Laura Villars and Belgian TV presenter Virginie Philippot.

All candidates have until October 3 and 24 to submit their bids, which also includes naming the presidential list – a team of nominees who will run alongside him to fill the positions of President of the Senate, Vice President for Automobile Mobility and Tourism, as well as Vice President for Sports.

The list also includes seven vice-presidents of sport; two from Europe and one each for the remaining regions – MENA, Africa, North America, South Africa and Asia-Pacific.

Any candidate for the above positions can only be included in one Presidential Candidate List and they must all be eligible candidates for the World Motor Sport Council. The list of eligible WMSC member candidates has now been made public, and importantly, it includes only one potential representative from South America – Fabiana Ecclestone.

Ecclestone, the Brazilian wife of former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, is Ben Sulayem’s current vice-president for the region and is also on his re-election team, so no other presidential candidate will be able to produce a presidential list that meets all the criteria.

Candidates for WMSC can be put forward by their respective ASN of their country. On 13 June the FIA ​​sent a letter to all FIA members, informing them of the 19 September deadline to submit such candidatures to the Council. That deadline has now expired, there is no other mechanism for members to apply to the Council, and thus no other way for the South American representative to be elected by presidential ticket.

According to the FIA’s published guidelines, candidates for the WMSC must be under 75 years of age on the day of election, and each WMSC candidate must not have anything in his/her record that calls into question his/her professional integrity.

This means that either Meyer and other presidential candidates failed to recruit a South American official to fill the position of Vice President in time, or such a candidacy was put forward but was rejected by the authorized FIA nomination committee.

South American Kingmaker of Ben Sulayem

Due to confidentiality agreements, the FIA ​​cannot disclose such details, but events earlier this year offer clues as to why the writing appeared to be on the wall for Mayer, whose team has been contacted for comment.

In May, rally veteran Carlos Sainz Sr. announced interest in running for president. Sainz ultimately could not follow through on those intentions, but the Spaniard’s high-profile bid attracted a lot of media attention.

Several weeks later 36 Spanish-speaking FIA members as well as a group of automobile clubs of the Americas sent a joint letter to Ben Sulayem expressing support for his re-election campaign. Fabiana Ecclestone also signed the letter.

But more importantly, the letter was signed by each president of the 11 South American federations, Demonstrating that any rival of Ben Sulayem would face an uphill battle to convince either of them to switch allegiance – which was necessary to advance a WMSC candidate seeking to join a separate presidential ticket.

As it happens, the mayor recently visited the continent as he travels around the world to drum up support for his campaign. “I recently spent some extremely busy days in South America visiting our member clubs in Chile, Bolivia and Argentina,” he wrote on the campaign website. “The warm welcome and topography in each country is individually spectacular, but my visit further strengthened FIA Forward’s opinion that the FIA ​​needs to provide unique solutions to the unique challenges of each region, whether they are in sport or mobility.”

But Ben Sulayem also enjoys strong support in Asia and Africa, with Mayer having already anticipated when announcing his candidacy that it would be difficult to beat the president at his own game of keeping member clubs on his side. In the election, each of the FIA’s 149 member states has an equal vote, divided between the sporting and mobility sides.

“We’re in a situation where it’s very important for member clubs that they see the value, that they see that they can get value,” Meyer said in July. “To be honest, Mohammed has been quite good at explaining to them what he is doing for them. But he needs to do it from top to bottom, not just for member clubs here and there. It needs to be universal within the organisation.”

Ben Sulayem’s first term proved divisive

In the above letter of support, Ben Sulayem was credited by his supporters for providing strong leadership and improving the FIA’s financial outlook following the COVID-19 pandemic. But the former rally driver has also faced criticism over his governance style.

In March this year, Dave Richards, head of Motorsport UK, accused Ben Sulayem of consolidating power, writing in an open letter that “the governance and constitutional organization of the FIA ​​is becoming ever more opaque and concentrating power in the hands of the President alone”.

The letter followed a series of high-profile resignations and dismissals within the FIA, including Mayer as well as CEO Natalie Robins, technical director Tim Goss, sporting director Steve Nielsen, compliance officer Paolo Basari and Deborah Mayer, chair of the FIA’s Women in Motorsport Commission.

The biggest reversal happened in April when Ben Sulayem’s running mate – vice president of sports Robert Reid – resigned. What he felt was a “breakdown of governance standards” and “important decisions being made without due process”. Reid was replaced as deputy president by Malcolm Wilson, founder of rallying powerhouse M-Sport.

There were also protests in June against changes to the FIA’s statutes and ethics code, introduced by Ben Sulayem, which have increased the President’s influence over FIA Senate membership and made the screening process for WMSC candidates more rigorous.

At the time the FIA ​​said the changes, which were voted by an overwhelming majority at its General Assembly in Macau, were “designed to further strengthen processes around governance and privacy” and “will give the Nomination Committee more time to scrutinize the eligibility criteria of candidates, and help ensure consistency and rigor in the electoral process.”

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