F1 chief faces probe of interference at Saudi Grand Prix

London — The head of Formula One’s governing body, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, is under investigation for allegedly interfering in the outcome of the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the BBC reported.

A spokesperson for the Paris-based International Automobile Federation (FIA), asked for a comment on the report, could not confirm any details but said “the matter is being discussed internally”.

Ben Sulayem, an Emirati, could not be reached for comment.

The BBC said it had seen a report by FIA compliance officer Paolo Basarri to its ethics committee in which a whistle-blower claimed the president had intervened to overturn a penalty given to Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.

It alleged that Ben Sulayem called Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the FIA’s vice-president for sport for the Middle East and North Africa who was in an official capacity at the race.

Double world champion Alonso was handed back the 100th podium of his F1 career after a U-turn by officials hours after the finish in Jeddah on March 19 2023. The 41-year-old Spaniard had finished third but was demoted to fourth by a 10sec post-race penalty for failing to serve properly a 5sec penalty for an error in placing his car on the starting grid. Stewards found the rear jack was in contact with the car before the 5sec were up.

The second penalty imposed more than 30 laps after his pit stop, was then reversed when his team won a right to review after presenting new evidence to support their case.

The new evidence included the minutes of a sporting advisory committee meeting and video of “seven different instances where cars were touched by the jack while serving a similar penalty ... without being penalised”.

• A Ferrari Testarossa sports car stolen from Austrian F1 driver Gerhard Berger during the 1995 San Marino Grand Prix weekend has been recovered by London police almost 29 years later.

The Metropolitan Police said the red F512M, worth about £350,000, was tracked down four days after Ferrari reported it was the one being sold through a British broker to a US buyer.

Police enquiries found it was shipped to Japan shortly after being stolen from the Italian city of Imola and then arrived in Britain in late 2023.

A second silver Ferrari F355 that belonged to Berger's French former teammate Jean Alesi, which was stolen on the same weekend in the Italian city, remains missing.

Alesi finished second in the race won by Williams’ Damon Hill with Berger third, in the Ferrari drivers’ final season at the Italian team before the arrival of Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine.

Berger had caught the thief in the act of stealing his car but after jumping clear and giving chase in a friend’s Volkswagen Golf, according to a news report at the time, was unable to prevent it from getting away. 

Reuters