The FIA has issued a statement addressing recent allegations concerning its president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
On Monday, a whistleblower accused Ben Sulayem of race tampering during the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Fernando Alonso was initially handed a 10-second time penalty for an infringement while serving a five-second time penalty in Jeddah last year.
The decision was later overturned following a protest by Aston Martin, however, a report published by the BBC claimed a whistleblower had alleged that Ben Sulayem tried to influence the race’s outcome.
It is alleged that the FIA President contacted the FIA Vice-President for Sport (Middle East), Abdullah bin Isa Al Khalifa, who is the president of the Bahrain Motor Federation to try and force the decision be overturned.
On Tuesday, fresh accusations were levelled against Ben Sulayem, this time for allegedly instructing officials to not certify the Las Vegas Grand Prix circuit ahead of its maiden race last year.
As per BBC Sport, a whistleblower was told “on behest of the FIA president” to find a way to not pass the circuit safe for racing.
The whistleblower reportedly added that “the purpose was to find fault with the track in order to withold the license” and that issues with the circuit were to be “artificially identified regardless of their actual existence”.
The governing body has now issued a statement, confirming that its Compliance Officer is investigating potential allegations.
“Compliance Officer has received a report detailing potential allegations involving certain members of its governing bodies,” the statement began.
“The Compliance Department is assessing these concerns, as is common practice in these matters, to ensure that due process is meticulously followed.”
An additional statement provided by an FIA spokesperson said: “It is unfortunate and a source of great concern that the matter has been disclosed to the media without any prior authorization and that certain elements of the report were inaccurately reported.”
The FIA is yet to confirm further details of the allegations, or that Ben Sulayem is the subject of an ongoing compliance investigation.
