The Formula One governing body has ended the service of two members of the committee that scrutinises its finances after they expressed concerns about a $1.5million (£1.18million) fund set up at the suggestion of the president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
At a meeting of the four-person audit committee for the FIA, questions were raised over whether it would be appropriate for Ben Sulayem to suggest offering $1.5million to international motoring clubs who will vote when the president seeks re-election in 2025.
Bertrand Badré, chairman of the committee, and Tom Purves were terminated last summer three days after Badré raised the issue. Badré, a former managing director of the World Bank, and Purves, the former chief executive of Rolls-Royce and BMW, had been working for the FIA on a pro-bono basis.
The revelation comes amid concerns over transparency at the FIA raised by drivers and teams in F1 this season.
Drivers have been fined for swearing over team radio and George Russell said before the Las Vegas Grand Prix that drivers were “a bit fed up” because they were yet to receive a response to questions about how the money was being spent.
Similar concerns have been raised about the $1million fines paid by Alpine and Honda for procedural breaches.
Badré and Purves are among a slew of staff who have left the FIA during Ben Sulayem’s time as president. This week Janette Tan, who was set to perform race director duties in Formula 2, left the governing body, while Tim Mayer, a senior steward, was sacked, with the latter telling the BBC: “The FIA are literally running out of people to do those jobs [race directors].”
Purves, a former CEO of BMW (US), and Badré ceased working with the FIA last week
EPA/ROB WIDDIS
Tan’s absence as the F2 race director in Qatar and Abu Dhabi means Rui Marques, who had been parachuted into the role of F1 race director after Niels Wittich was sacked before the Las Vegas Grand Prix, will now have to oversee both categories and the F1 Academy.
“Just when we’ve asked for, let’s say, a bit of transparency and consistency, we are getting rid of two highly important people in the governing body,” Russell said. “We still don’t have any reasoning for the Niels [Wittich, the former race director] removal. I don’t think anybody was informed about Tim [Mayer] leaving and the same… the first I heard about the new race director doing Formula 2 this weekend, as well, was through the media.
“We’d love to get a little bit of clarity and understanding of what’s going on and who’s getting fired next.”
The lack of clarity and transparency has been a recurrent issue for the drivers. The audit committee examines the accounts of the FIA and is charged with assessing any risks facing the organisation which have financial implications.
In February, the committee received information from the finance department that asked questions about the administration of funds allocated for the president’s expenses and the absence of receipts. The president’s expense fund is referred to by FIA lawyers as his “entitlement”. A later email to international motoring clubs suggests that the entitlement was $1.5million. The finance committee was led to believe that Ben Sulayem was intending to spend a proportion of that entitlement on the maintenance of his private jet.
In the FIA statutes and regulations, there is no record of how the president’s entitlement should be administered or whether it can or cannot be spent on private jet maintenance. The president is unsalaried. The FIA has not disclosed how much of Ben Sulayem’s entitlement was spent in his first two years in office.
The FIA is based in Paris and French law requires expenses to be receipted. The Times understands that when Ben Sulayem was asked for receipts, he decided to end all use of his entitlement and, henceforward, to pay his expenses out of his own pocket.
The last meeting of the audit committee with Badré as chairman was on June 3. Before the meeting, the committee was informed of the president’s suggestion that the $1.5million might be directed instead to a fund for motoring clubs worldwide.
Questions were raised at the audit committee over whether the new use of the $1.5million was appropriate because it was going to clubs around the world who would have a vote when the president sought re-election at the end of 2025.
As the chairman, Badré was due to present to the FIA general assembly in Samarkand in Uzbekistan on June 13. He was told not to travel but to join them over Zoom instead.
At the general assembly, Ben Sulayem formally announced the creation of the new “President’s development fund”. On his Zoom call, Badré relayed the audit committee’s feedback.
On June 16, the senate members received communications from Carmelo Sanz de Barros, the senate president, asking for an e-vote on whether to end the service of Badré and Purves. The vote was carried.
In an email to the senate, Purves has described this as “a sad day for the FIA”.
Badré and Purves asked the senate for an independent review and the opportunity to explain their position. They received no reply.
The RAC club, of which Purves had been chairman, is one of the member clubs of the FIA. The RAC also wrote to the FIA asking why the services of Purves had been dispensed with and received no reply.
The Times has seen the email sent subsequently by Purves to the senate members asking why the president of the senate would ask for the dismissal of half the audit committee, including the chairman, “if there is nothing untoward or nothing to hide?”
And: “Why would the president of the senate and the president of the FIA seek this dismissal despite the proposal to have an independent investigation? What was there to hide?”
On August 4, an FIA email was sent to international motoring clubs in which Ben Sulayem informed them that, in Samarkand, “I announced a new initiative,” and that, “by reallocating funds that would have been used for the president expenses” there was a new $1.5million fund, called the President’s Development Fund, that was aimed at supporting small and medium-sized clubs. It is understood that the initiative would be supported by external advisors, including governmental representatives.
The issue of transparency at the FIA has been a subject that the drivers have been raising recently.
Four weeks ago, before the Brazil Grand Prix, the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association released a statement which said: “For the past three years, we have called upon the FIA president to share the details and strategy regarding how the FIA’s financial fines are allocated and where the funds are spent.
Russell, in Qatar for this weekend’s grand prix, has expressed concern over the number of changes at the governing body
ERIC ALONSO/DPPI/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
“We once again request that the FIA president provides financial transparency and direct, open dialogue with us. All stakeholders should jointly determine how and where the money is spent for the benefit of our sport.”
Last week, at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Russell said that the drivers had received no response to their request. The reasons behind the departures of Mayer and Tan were also not communicated to drivers, adding to Russell’s frustration.
In the past year the FIA has seen a number of key staff depart: sporting director Steve Nielsen, technical director Tim Goss, managing director Natalie Robyn, head of commission for women Deborah Mayer, secretary general of mobility Jacob Bangsgaard and director of communications Luke Skipper.
The FIA was contacted for comment.