Mohammed Ben Sulayem is the new FIA President. In the election on Friday in Paris, he clearly prevailed against Graham Stoker, a close companion of the previous President Jean Todt.
Sulayem, who was the first Arab to be elected to the FIA World Council, is the first non-European President of the World Automobile Federation. With a good 60 percent of the vote, he beat his British competitor on Friday. Quite a small surprise, as Stoker had worked closely with Jean Todt during the twelve-year tenure of Jean Todt.
Transparency and democracy for a rethink
The voters seem to have won over the fresh approach of the President-elect, however. Sulayem, who with 14 titles in the FIA Middle East Championship is one of the most successful Arab rally drivers of all time, addressed transparency, democracy and accessibility in his election campaign. Compared to “Autosport” he emphasized that he wanted to initiate a rethinking: “You can’t just repeat what the previous president did, it doesn’t work. There are new challenges.”
He now wants to tackle this with a team of experienced motorsport greats – for example the former British rally driver Robert Reid as deputy. Of course, the FIA leaders are not completely losing their direct line to Formula 1. After Todt, who had been the Scuderia team boss at Ferrari for years before his presidency, Fabiana Ecclestone, the wife of former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, is now part of the cabinet. She is to take on the role of Vice President Sport for South America.
