Mohammed Ben Sulayem: FIA President under investigation for alleged attempt to interfere over F1 race

[myurr]

Another whistle-blower in the sport.

Tell you what, there will be more and more of these stories coming out this year. When people realise they can make/leak a story to the press and get some money for it.

Not sure why whistleblowing of corrupt officialdom is viewed by some as bad.

The irony being it's officially part of the FIA's strategy for policing teams for there to be personnel changes as people move teams, and those new employees will blow the whistle on their old team's dodgy practices.

That's how Ferrari were caught cheating with the engine for example, working around limitations in the fuel flow meter.

[mwillems]

Is it totally crazy to wonder if the whistleblowing is at all related to MBS' support of Horner? Not suggesting it is, just that with how crazy the sport is right now, it wouldn't surprise me if this was somehow related.

[littlebigcat]

Oops

[mwillems]

Is it totally crazy to wonder if the whistleblowing is at all related to MBS' support of Horner? Not suggesting it is, just that with how crazy the sport is right now, it wouldn't surprise me if this was somehow related.

Joe Saward first reported on the changing the result in January this year, so no.

Fair play, I did not know that. When was it reported as whistleblowing, do we know?

[littlebigcat]

I just went to look for the source and realised I misread something. Oops.

[AMG.Tzan]

Fire that crap already…

The worst FIA president to ever walk f1! Even Ballestre was better than this dude…

[hollus]

Being on topic is welcome in any thread. Actually, it is even allowed!

Note: AD21 is not on topic. Not here, not in any thread, basically. I am 100% certain that you did not come to F1T to read about AD21, so, please, stop bringing AD21 into every topic? It also saves the (too slow) deletions. Win-win-win? You don't waste time going off topic, mods don't need to delete it and other people get to read what they came to read about.

[Watto]

Doesn’t look like he will survive all that much longer,

[purestpurist]

To play devil's advocate:
Saudi Arabia: I remember pundits not sympathetic to Alonso at the time saying it was a silly penalty, Sulayem was establishing a healthy precedent.
Las Vegas: The track wasn't safe, as demonstrated by the drain cover Sainz hit. The final turn is also very dangerous. I wouldn't at all be surprised if it kills or seriously injures someone.

I'm not convinced that either report is true, or that if they were Sulayem was acting in good faith. But I do find it strange that popular opinion is against him despite the Andretti saga and the drain cover/no fans for fp2 being very unpopular.

[SharkY]

Saudi Arabia: I remember pundits not sympathetic to Alonso at the time saying it was a silly penalty, Sulayem was establishing a healthy precedent.

The penalty wasn't silly, unless they truly weren't touching the car. Once you establish a hard limit in the regulations, you've got to adhere to it, or the teams will exploit that. Touching the car might have saved them a couple of hundreths of a second, but it's still an advantage. Just like track limits - 1cm out of limits is a negligible advantage, but if you make it into a soft limit ("eee... it was barely over, we can let it go"), the teams will push those boundaries further each time, expecting to get away with it. And then, the regulation becomes useless.

<Mod edit, AD21 leftovers removed>

[PapayaFan481]

To play devil's advocate:
Saudi Arabia: I remember pundits not sympathetic to Alonso at the time saying it was a silly penalty, Sulayem was establishing a healthy precedent.
Las Vegas: The track wasn't safe, as demonstrated by the drain cover Sainz hit. The final turn is also very dangerous. I wouldn't at all be surprised if it kills or seriously injures someone.

I'm not convinced that either report is true, or that if they were Sulayem was acting in good faith. But I do find it strange that popular opinion is against him despite the Andretti saga and the drain cover/no fans for fp2 being very unpopular.

Do you mean the final turn? It's no worse than the final turn at Singapore. There are others where they're effectively driving straight towards a barrier at top speed.

[purestpurist]

To play devil's advocate:
Saudi Arabia: I remember pundits not sympathetic to Alonso at the time saying it was a silly penalty, Sulayem was establishing a healthy precedent.
Las Vegas: The track wasn't safe, as demonstrated by the drain cover Sainz hit. The final turn is also very dangerous. I wouldn't at all be surprised if it kills or seriously injures someone.

I'm not convinced that either report is true, or that if they were Sulayem was acting in good faith. But I do find it strange that popular opinion is against him despite the Andretti saga and the drain cover/no fans for fp2 being very unpopular.

Do you mean the final turn? It's no worse than the final turn at Singapore. There are others where they're effectively driving straight towards a barrier at top speed.

Even Singapore has limited runoff, it's closer to the preceding chicane, and its first bend is sharper with a shorter radius. The only turns that are similarly dangerous that come to mind are eau rouge and most of Jeddah. I don't think we should stop running at these circuits (maybe Jeddah could be altered), f1 is very dangerous, but if there's a high profile accident at any of them people will demand change and pretend they were always opposed to it.

[FW17]

To play devil's advocate:
Saudi Arabia: I remember pundits not sympathetic to Alonso at the time saying it was a silly penalty, Sulayem was establishing a healthy precedent.
Las Vegas: The track wasn't safe, as demonstrated by the drain cover Sainz hit. The final turn is also very dangerous. I wouldn't at all be surprised if it kills or seriously injures someone.

I'm not convinced that either report is true, or that if they were Sulayem was acting in good faith. But I do find it strange that popular opinion is against him despite the Andretti saga and the drain cover/no fans for fp2 being very unpopular.

Do you mean the final turn? It's no worse than the final turn at Singapore. There are others where they're effectively driving straight towards a barrier at top speed.

Even Singapore has limited runoff, it's closer to the preceding chicane, and its first bend is sharper with a shorter radius. The only turns that are similarly dangerous that come to mind are eau rouge and most of Jeddah. I don't think we should stop running at these circuits (maybe Jeddah could be altered), f1 is very dangerous, but if there's a high profile accident at any of them people will demand change and pretend they were always opposed to it.

Singapore has the that turn you mentioned 280 m from the previous corner. Las Vegas is 1 km

[PapayaFan481]

Do you mean the final turn? It's no worse than the final turn at Singapore. There are others where they're effectively driving straight towards a barrier at top speed.

Even Singapore has limited runoff, it's closer to the preceding chicane, and its first bend is sharper with a shorter radius. The only turns that are similarly dangerous that come to mind are eau rouge and most of Jeddah. I don't think we should stop running at these circuits (maybe Jeddah could be altered), f1 is very dangerous, but if there's a high profile accident at any of them people will demand change and pretend they were always opposed to it.

Singapore has the that turn you mentioned 280 m from the previous corner. Las Vegas is 1 km

It's not a hard breaking 90 degree bend though, it's a flowing high speed corner.

[De Wet]

Is it totally crazy to wonder if the whistleblowing is at all related to MBS' support of Horner? Not suggesting it is, just that with how crazy the sport is right now, it wouldn't surprise me if this was somehow related.

Not crazy at all...