FIA probes ‘potential allegations involving certain members of its governing bodies’ amid reports of interference in 2023 F1 race

By Matias Grez, CNN

(CNN) — The FIA, motorsport’s world governing body, says it is looking at “potential allegations involving certain members of its governing bodies,” amid media reports of alleged interference in the result of a Formula One race during 2023.

The BBC reported on Tuesday that a whistleblower told the governing body that FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem allegedly intervened to overturn a penalty given to Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix last year, which is detailed in a report by an FIA compliance officer to its ethics committee that the BBC reports it has seen.

CNN has not been able to independently verify details of the FIA compliance officer’s report.

Mohammed Ben Sulayem did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

“The FIA confirms that the Compliance Officer has received a report detailing potential allegations involving certain members of its governing bodies,” the governing body told CNN in a statement.

“The Compliance Department is assessing these concerns, as is common practice in these matters, to ensure that due process is meticulously followed.

“It is unfortunate and a source of concern that the matter has been disclosed to the media without any prior authorization and that certain elements of the report were inaccurately reported.”

According to the BBC, the ethics report is centered around the 2023 Saudi Arabian GP.

In the race, Alonso was given a five-second penalty for lining up outside his grid box at the start of the event and then was assessed a further 10-second penalty for not serving the first correctly due to a mechanic’s jack touching the car before the five seconds had elapsed.

Cars cannot be worked on while drivers are serving penalties.

The second penalty dropped him from third to fourth place, overtaken by Mercedes’ George Russell in the final podium place.

However, the decision by race stewards was later reversed after Aston Martin, Alonso’s team, submitted a letter to review the second penalty.

“In support of the Petition for Review, the Stewards were shown minutes of the latest SAC meeting and video evidence of 7 different instances where cars were touched by the jack while serving a similar penalty to the one imposed on Car 14 without being penalized,” F1 said at the time.

“The clear submission by the Team was that the alleged representation of an agreement between the FIA and the teams that touching the car in any way, including with a jack, would constitute ‘working’ on the car for the purposes of Article 54.4 (c) of the Sporting Regulations, was incorrect and therefore the basis of the Steward’s decision was wrong.”

By removing the penalty, Alonso returned to a podium position.

This year’s Saudi Arabia GP takes place on Saturday.

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