Mohammed bin Sulayem, President of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), wants to make karting cheaper and therefore even more attractive as an entry-level series
“Who can afford to pay 275,000 euros [per season] for their ten-year-old child?” With this statement, which he does not specify, Mohammed bin Sulayem, President of the FIA, questions the current cost structure in (international) karting. And he immediately provides the answer: “That is not possible. “
That’s why he sees it as his task to make karting more affordable as an entry-level series in motorsport: “Karting is so expensive. We therefore want to standardize the requirements and then reduce the costs. After all, we want to see motorsport grow. All the drivers in Formula 1, Formula 2 and Formula 3 come from karting. And that’s where we have to start.”
Specifically, he is concerned, for example, with simplifying the technology and standardizing the sometimes differing sets of rules. He takes soccer as an example here: “It’s such a simple sport. There are simple rules with eleven players on each side and one ball.”
“But we have so many different rules. I want to change that.” And he is “gradually seeing light at the end of the tunnel.”
The FIA itself must also look at the money
Cost-cutting is also high on the list of priorities for the world governing body itself. According to bin Sulayem, the FIA has been “in the red for 40 years” because the organization’s operating costs have been very high, most recently at almost 30 million euros per year. And here he reports initial progress: “We got it down to just under eight million last year.”
But getting there was not easy: “You can’t just go and cut everything. That’s not healthy,” says bin Sulayem.
“I always say: if you let someone go to the fifth floor, it takes time. But then you can’t say jump back down again. Because that inevitably hurts. So the way back has to be done step by step.”
This is why the FIA committed to further reductions at its General Assembly in December 2023. The association is entering 2024 with the goal of “further reducing operating losses compared to previous years” because the FIA wants to stand for “more transparency and balanced budgets”, according to a press release.