Word on the beat
David Richards’ angry words for the FIA president
- After being denied entry to the FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting in Paris for refusing to sign a nondisclosure agreement, Motorsport UK boss David Richards has issued a highly critical statement of FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem: “I’m afraid that over the last three years there has been a distinct failure to meet promises. In fact, the situation has progressively worsened with media reports confirming that numerous senior members of the FIA and volunteer officials have either been fired or have resigned under an opaque cloud.
“Furthermore, the scope of the audit and ethics committees has been severely limited and now lacks autonomy from the authority of the president, while our UK representative, who challenged certain matters, was summarily removed along with the chair of the audit committee.”
Ben Sulayem is standing for re-election in December and Richards – who supported Ben Sulayem’s candidacy to succeed Jean Todt as president in 2021 – is strongly rumoured to be helping put together a campaign for an alternative candidate. Richards himself can’t stand. At 72, he doesn’t meet the 70-year maximum age imposed by Ben Sulayem, 67.
- Both Ferraris and Pierre Gasly’s Alpine were excluded from the results of the Chinese Grand Prix for technical infringements discovered post-race. The Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and Gasly’s Alpine were each found to be 1kg below the 800kg minimum weight. Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari was excluded for excessive underfloor plank wear.
- Tougher rear wing deflection tests were imposed for the Chinese Grand Prix via a technical directive to teams. Haas and Alpine had to make small changes to ensure they complied to the new requirement. McLaren and Ferrari both claimed not to have needed to make changes to comply.