FIA defends Mohammed Ben Sulayem's 20-year-old sexist comments

It was recently revealed that the current FIA president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, made sexist comments on an archived website around 20 years ago. The quote came from his former personal website under the 'likes and dislikes' section. The website was active around 2001, when the current FIA president was still a rally driver.

In the likes and dislikes section on his old website, Ben Sulayem wrote:

“I love the desert and I love meeting real people, [but also dislikes talking] about money, nor do I like women who think they are smarter than men, for they are not in truth.”

After the quote surfaced and went viral, millions of motorsport fans took to social media platforms to protest against Ben Sulayem. However, the FIA defended their president and explained how his current beliefs greatly differ from what he wrote 20 years ago. They also pointed out how Ben Sulayem has promoted women and gender equality in several motor sports. An FIA spokesperson said:

“The remarks in this archived website from 2001 do not reflect the president’s beliefs. He has a strong record on promoting women and equality in sport, which he is happy to be judged on. It was a central part of his manifesto and actions taken this year and the many years he served as Vice President for Sport prove this.”

Mohammed Ben Sulayem has also been scrutinized for several other reasons aside from his sexist statement. He made comments on F1's $20 billion valuation being inflated and warned future potential buyers to use common sense. F1's new amendment, which bans drivers and other individuals from making personal political statements, didn't get much praise from the F1 community.

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FIA President declares that F1 will continue to have multiple race directors

Mohammed Ben Sulayem recently spoke about how F1 will continue to have multiple race directors. After a chaotic end to the 2021 F1 season where Michael Masi made some glaring decisions, the FIA will not be taking any chances and keeping one race director for the entire season.

When Ben Sulayem was at the Dakar Rally, he spoke to the media:

“There is a process now and I have a team who is going through a proper process and training for stewarding, and for race directors. You cannot just have one race director and rely on them. I see that we should prepare the second role. We cannot rely in the biggest discipline that we have, or any other discipline.”

He concluded:

“What if something happened? If we are going to sustain motorsport, we have to be ready with training.”

The FIA president also mentioned how the governing body is contacting other ASNs to hire race directors from junior racing series and train them to supervise bigger series like F1.