Having told the drivers to mind their own business in terms of FIA affairs, Mohammed ben Sulayem now appears to be seeking to make himself fully unaccountable.

Following recent investigations of the sport's governing body, Ben Sulayem is proposing changes to the way in which it handles ethics complaints.

Currently, such complaints go before the audit committee but a forthcoming vote at the FIA general assembly would instead see them only go before the FIA president and Carmelo Sanz De Barros the president the FIA's senate.

The move follows a year in which there have been numerous allegations concerning the FIA president all of which have been investigated by the ethics and audit committees - however under the new system, like so many institutions these days, the 'judge' would now be judging himself.

At a time the drivers have called for transparency in terms of where the money from fines goes, questions have been raised over a so-called "president's fund" set up to pay the member clubs which vote for the president (sound familiar), while a whistle-blower claimed that Ben Sulayem sought to overrule Fernando Alonso's penalty in Saudi Arabia and attempted to deny approval of the Las Vegas track before the inaugural event last year.

The move is unlikely to go down well with anyone - other than Ben Sulayem - and comes at the end of a tumultuous year for the sport's governing body, a year which has seen numerous sackings and departures, suggesting an organisation in turmoil and without proper leadership.

Race director Niels Wittich was fired and replaced by F2 (and F3) race director Rui Marques. However, as the Portuguese settled into his new role his replacement Janette Tam was fired before taking charge of her maiden event.

Long-standing steward Tim Mayer was sacked by text message, while other 'victims' of the regime include former CEO Natalie Robyn, head of the audit committee (and there's the clue) Bertrande Badre, fellow committee member Tom Purves and compliance officer Paolo Basarri.

The proposed changes to the statutes will remove the ability of the compliance officer to report to the audit committee and the committee's ability to investigate any issues unless called on by the president of the senate. - which is Carmelo Sanz De Barros, a member of Ben Sulayem's four-person leadership team - consequently at a swoop the FIA president would control the appointment of the head of the ethics committee, removing the role of the senate and compliance officer.

It is feared that the move will prevent whistle-blowers raising concerns and reporting issues to the ethics and audit committees, and consequently prevent the committees investigating said issues.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by kenji, 5 hours ago

"@Mad Matt...good post. I agree with your points. Maybe it's a cultural thing under another guise. "

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2. Posted by Mad Matt, 6 hours ago

"Not sure Bernie and Max were good examples to hold up when speaking about following the rules and transparency.... and, just to look at it another way, you could argue that there have been multiple investigations into ben Sulayem and he's always found innocent by an independent body and he now feels these baseless attacks have to stop.

I also don't think it's any of the drivers business what happens to the fines... it's just another page in the drivers book of excuses, another way to try and push the blame elsewhere as they skulk off muttering under their breath :-)

I'm not sure what the truth is here and it certainly wouldn't be the first time there's been corruption in international sport..... still probably not as bad as most 'democratic' governments though...."

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3. Posted by Wokingchap, 8 hours ago

"Scumbag dictator......but what else could we have expected from one who grew up in a dictatorship. Bernie was/is a dictator too but he had some principles, not like this bastxxd."

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