Do you recall the Las Vegas GP incident where the drain cover hit the Ferrari’s underfloor and completely shattered it? Safety concerns like this are sometimes the reason behind a track not being able to make it to F1. After all, they have to comply with the FIA safety regulations. However, in an interesting turn of events, we get to know that the FIA president didn’t want the Las Vegas GP which had an estimated economic impact of $1.2 Billion. 

The Las Vegas GP was the star event of the 2023 F1 calendar. Maybe not in terms of racing but definitely in terms of the hype around it. Ever since the event was announced, people started talking about the economic impact that it’ll have on the sin city. And it did, with an estimated impact of around 1.2 billion dollars. But Mohammed Ben Sulayem wanted the race to be canceled. For what reason you may ask. Well, that’s unknown. 

But according to BBC, an FIA spokesperson talking about the same said, “From a sporting and safety perspective, the Las Vegas circuit approval followed FIA protocol in terms of inspection and certification. If you recall, there was a delay in the track being made available for inspection due to ongoing local organizer construction works.” The report further suggested that the manager contacted the said person, “Who on behest of the FIA president instructed him to find some concerns to prevent the FIA from certifying the circuit before the weekend of the race”.

He added, “The purpose was to find fault with the track in order to withhold the license. Asked to be more specific, [the whistleblower] said that issues on the circuit were meant to be artificially identified regardless of their actual existence, with the ultimate goal of withholding the license.”

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But this isn’t the only thing that Mohammed Ben Sulayem is reportedly under investigation for. Remember the Saudi Arabian GP from last where Fernando Alonso was penalized for serving the stop-go penalty incorrectly, and later it was revoked? Ben Sulayem has been accused of interfering in the revoke of the decision.

Mohammed Ben Sulayem is reportedly under investigation for interfering with Saudi Arabian GP 

Fernando Alonso was penalized last year for not serving his penalty properly. But Aston Martin appealed the decision and the decision was overturned, putting Alonso back on the podium. After F1 and FIA were criticized for refusing Andretti’s appeal to join F1 and now, reportedly Ben Sulayem is now under investigation for interfering with the decision around the overturning of Alonso’s penalty.

According to BBC, “The report, by compliance officer Paolo Basarri, says the whistleblower reported that Ben Sulayem ‘pretended the stewards to overturn their decision to issue’ the penalty to Alonso.”

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What do you think about Mohammed Ben Sulayem not wanting the Las Vegas GP?