FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has reportedly informed Formula 1's team bosses that he will no longer exercise a hands-on control over the sport.
According to the Daily Mail's Sportsmail, the FIA’s head of single seater technical matters Nikolas Tombazis will now handle day-to-day contact with Formula 1, while Ben Sulayem will intervene only on "strategic matters".
"My stated objective was to be a non-executive president via the recruitment of a team of professional managers, which has now been largely completed," the embattled president wrote in a letter to teams which was seen by the Daily Mail.
"Therefore, going forward, your day-to-day contact for all matters on F1 will be with Nikolas and his team, while I will focus on strategic matters with my leadership team."
Formula 1 has been at odds with Ben Sulayem since the start of the year, with tensions gradually rising between the sport's chiefs and the FIA president.
The Emirati openly supported Andretti-Cadillac's entry into F1, a move frowned upon by most teams and indeed by F1 itself who are resisting the idea of expanding Grand Prix racing's field.
But Ben Sulayem's reaction to a report published by Bloomberg last month that claimed that commercial rights holder Liberty Media had received a massive $20 billion buy-out offer for F1 from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund brought tensions to a boiling point.
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Ben Sulayem called the valuation an "inflated price tag" which triggered an angry reaction from Formula 1 whose legal department fired off a letter in which it accused the governing body's top official of meddling in the sport's commercial affairs.
Furthermore, the FIA was also criticised for its clampdown on drivers' political statements on race weekend, with F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali addressing the governing body's new policy this week and insisting that Formula will "never put a gag" on its drivers.
Rumors have emerged lately that team bosses have had it with Ben Sulayem and wish for the latter to resign from his post as FIA president.
Ben Sulayem's letter to the sports' teams and his relaxing of control over F1 reflects perhaps a compromise reached behind closed doors between the FIA and Formula 1.
The 61-year-old official has been saved from an embarrassing forced exit just one year into his presidency, but he will now govern from his office in Place de la Concorde in Paris with less involvement and more discretion.
However, the move may well be a mere reprieve for a man perceived as a loose canon by F1, but also by many within the venerable institution that he chairs.
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