Ben Sulayem: FIA can't be a platform for 'private personal agenda'

Mohammed Ben Sulayem says the FIA cannot be used as a platform for a driver's private personal agenda, as this will divert from the sport.

Last month, the FIA amended its International Sporting Code by adding a provision that bans drivers from expressing or displaying "political, religious and personal statements", unless previously approved by the governing body.

The FIA's decision followed several years during which political and environmental activism was exhibited in F1, with the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel often using their notoriety on race day to denounce social injustice, inequalities, or environmental change issues.

Under its previous regime, the governing body tolerated such freedoms of expression, but its new president believes that neutrality should now prevail, and that drivers, as the stars of the show, should stick to what they do best: driving.

"I am a big believer in the sport," said Ben Sulayem, speaking to the media while visiting the Dakar rally this week in Saudi Arabia.

"We are concerned with building bridges. You can use sport for peace reasons and all of this.

"But one thing we don’t want is to have the FIA as a platform for private personal agenda. We will divert from the sport.

"What does the driver do best? Driving. They are so good at it, and they make the business, they make the show, they are the stars. Nobody is stopping them.

"There are other platforms to express what they want. Everybody has this, and they are most welcome to go through the process of the FIA, to go through that."

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• FIA tightens its grip: No more 'political statements' by F1 drivers

Ben Sulayem added that the FIA "just want our sport to be clean", the Emirati former rally driver denying that he was on quest to shut drivers down.

"I have my own personal things, OK, but it doesn’t mean I will use the FIA to do it," he added.

"The FIA should be neutral, I believe, and we need the superstars in to make the sport. And they do such a great job when it comes to the competition that all of us enjoy."

The FIA president made clear that a breach of the International Sporting Code by a driver would be dealt with at the level of the stewards, and with the clarity and process that guide any sporting infraction on a race weekend.

"It’s always clarity, there is the process," said Ben Sulayem.

"If there is anything, you take the permission. If not, if they make any other mistake, it’s like speeding in the pit lane. If you do it, it’s very clear what you get.

"Some of the penalties, you can never put clarity and like if someone is pushing when it comes to the limits in the track, track limits, that’s very hard. That needs a steward to check, look at it again.

"But the stewards have the full power, not the FIA president."

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