A rift is growing between Formula 1 and new FIA president Mohammed ben Sulayem after a plan to introduce six Sprint events in 2023 was blocked.
Last weekend saw the best Sprint event so far at Imola, with Max Verstappen making up for a poor start by catching and passing Charles Leclerc for victory.
Afterwards, F1 motorsport director Ross Brawn was quick to pounce on its success with the new 2022 cars.
“We’re very pleased with the sprint race,” he said. “Great entertainment, lots of racing going on, plenty of overtaking, we demonstrated the cars could follow.
Verstappen and Leclerc put on a brilliant display for us in the #F1Sprint ?
We can’t wait to see what the Grand Prix will involve with these two on the front row! ?#ImolaGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/Nv7UPm61sJ
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 24, 2022
“What you should always remember about the sprint is it gives you a great Friday as well. We’ve had three days of action for the fans and we can’t ignore that.
“I know you may say ‘well it was DRS’ but you can’t use DRS unless you can get on the back of the car, so I think overall it was very successful.
“We didn’t quite know where we were last year with the old cars but I think they can see the way this is feeding into the new cars. I’m optimistic they’ll all see the value in it. Even the fans.”
While a plan to double the current number of three to six for this season was canned over a budget cap dispute, this week, all teams approved doing so for next season at an F1 Commission meeting in London.
The FIA though was unwilling to support the change with a statement afterwards claiming the governing body is “still evaluating the impact of this proposal on its trackside operations and personnel, and will provide its feedback to the Commission”.
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However, it is claimed the real reason is due to FIA president Ben Sulayem demanding more money from F1 before giving the six Sprints the green light.
Currently, the FIA gets $40m plus $1m for each race over 20 from F1 owners Liberty Media as well as some revenue from race promoters.
Ben Sulayem’s position has reportedly “annoyed” and “shocked” F1 teams with Sky Sports stating the word “greed” had been used to describe what the FIA is demanding.
But in response to a BBC request for comment on the dispute, a spokesperson for the governing body insisted their opposition was not purely financial and that the evaluation was “for a genuine operational purpose, ensuring we have the resource to adequately do our job.
“We are not a profit-creating organisation,” they added. “But we do need to be properly resourced.”
Well done @Max33Verstappen @redbullracing for winning the first #F1Sprint of the 2022 @FIA @F1 season!#F1 #ImolaGP pic.twitter.com/F99ZV3I47R
— Mohammed Ben Sulayem (@Ben_Sulayem) April 23, 2022
More generally, there are also growing questions about the priorities of Ben Sulayem, who replaced former FIA president Jean Todt at the start of this year.
“A number of senior figures at the meeting also told me they were bemused at FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s general attitude,” Sky Sports continued.
“They felt he was more interested in talking about issues like drivers wearing jewellery than some of the major concerns confronting F1. There is growing concern he is not aligned with F1’s direction of travel.”
