Mohammed Ben Sulayem accused of trying to influence the holding of the Las Vegas Grand Prix

As if the situation was not already confusing enough with the ongoing affairs, a new front is opening on Mohammed Ben Sulayem. According to the BBC, the president of the International Automobile Federation (FIA) tried to undermine the holding of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

According to the whistleblower cited by the English media, the same one who had accused Ben Sulayem of having tried to influence a penalty imposed on Fernando Alonso at the 2023 Saudi Arabian GP, ​​the 62-year-old Emirati would have transmitted instructions so that his troops find a reason, valid or not, to refuse approval to the Las Vegas circuit.

The implementation of the route, in the heart of the city and partly on the Strip – the main avenue of casinos – had been complicated and late, with the inspection being carried out at the last minute. Then the first day of running was disrupted when Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari came off a manhole, causing major damage to his car and long delays in the day’s progress.

But according to the document submitted to the FIA ​​ethics committee, and which the BBC says it has read, the president’s request was not directly linked to these possible problems. Moreover, the people in charge of the inspection had granted the necessary license to the circuit, having been unable to find any problems that they could have “inflated” in an artificial way.

Such a request could have been motivated by the more or less open war between the FIA ​​and Formula 1 since the arrival of the Emirati as president of the FIA, in December 2021. The Las Vegas GP was the first of the history where Formula 1 was organizer and promoter of the event.