The organizer of FIA world championships in the United States and senior steward Tim Mayer has hit out at Mohammed Ben Sulayem after becoming the latest high-profile figure to be fired by the governing body.
Mayer (main pic) has told the BBC he was fired by text message by one of the president’s assistants after having to represent the United States Grand Prix race organizers in a recent right of review. The successful appeal centered on the language used to describe the nature of the infringement at Circuit of the Americas’, where a post-race track invasion started before all cars were back in the pits last month.
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“The official reason that will be given is they felt there was a conflict of interest with the FIA as I had led the right of review in my role as organizer,” Mayer told the BBC. “But that is not why I was fired. Being an organizer is a role that I have fulfilled, benefiting the FIA, for over 12 years. This isn’t new.
“In spite of the matter being resolved quietly and amicably, he’s [Ben Sulayem] still upset and decided to fire me. After 15 years of volunteering my time as a steward, a decade teaching other stewards and hundreds of hours volunteering in other roles, I got a text from one of his assistants.”
It’s not just Mayer who is leaving. Formula 2 deputy race director Janette Tan is also departing at a time when she was supposed to step up to the F2 race director role in place of newly-appointed F1 race director Rui Marques. It is understood that Marques will now fulfill the duties for F1, F2 and F1 Academy this weekend in Qatar.
“She is the epitome of the type of person we want working for the FIA, the best of the next generation of race directors,” said Mayer. “I don’t know the circumstances, but one would think they would work very hard to keep someone of her character.
“I know how hard both of those jobs are. I like Rui a lot, but it will put him under incredible pressure. There aren’t a lot of ‘platinum-level’ FIA race directors, which is the FIA’s highest level certification. I’m one of them. It’s a lot of work and, if you are doing the job right, you wake up every day with an ulcer thinking of all the various things you need to be thinking about.
“They’re not doing themselves any favors. They are literally running out of people to do those jobs.”
Mayer and Tan follow former F1 race director Niels Wittich and compliance officer Paulo Basarri in having recently departed in the last few weeks, while CEO Natalie Robyn, sporting director Steve Nielsen, single-seater technical director Tim Goss and women in motorsport president Deborah Mayer have also all left within the past 12 months.
George Russell says the departures are worrying, and creating an unstable situation within the FIA that the drivers have concerns about.
“Just when we’ve asked for transparency and consistency, we’re getting rid of two highly important people in the governing body,” Russell said. “It’s gone full 360. We still don’t have any reasoning for Niels’ removal. I don’t think anybody was informed about Tim leaving. The first I heard about the new race director doing Formula 2 this weekend was through the media.
“Naturally in any organization, if you’ve got people leaving or change of personnel, it’s never going to be a stable environment. People have to learn the new rules and that’s very challenging for any team. It must be super challenging for everyone within the FIA right now. We’d love to get a little bit of clarity and understanding of what’s going on and who’s getting fired next.”