The FIA has rebutted former president Jean Todt’s claims that Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s concerns over the historical state of the organisation’s finances were overstated. According to FIA accounts, losses have reduced from £20.6 million (€24 million) in 2021 to a forecasted £2.58m (€3 million) for the 2023 season.
Todt stepped down from his term as F1 president in 2021 having been first elected in 2009. The former Ferrari director served three elected terms as FIA president and left behind a strong legacy, but according to the latest figures, his successor inherited an alarming financial predicament.
In an interview with L’Equipe, Todt stated: “Each year, the accounts have been largely profitable, except the last two years, marked by the COVID crisis, which could have finished the federation if we had not succeeded in quickly building the conditions which allowed F1 to be the first international competition to be organised despite lockdowns.”
However, a response from an FIA spokesman has dismissed Todt’s suggestions, stating: “As the FIA president outlined during the annual general assemblies week in Baku, the FIA has been transparent in revealing that soon after the new presidential team took office, the financial state that was discovered was unsatisfactory and unsustainable. The federation was incurring significant losses.
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“The senior leadership’s mission is to sustain the FIA, and while we are not for profit, we do need to at least have balanced books and ideally create a surplus to strengthen equity for unforeseen events and to invest in research and development in the areas of safety, technology, and regulation across sport and mobility and to meet our primary purpose of supporting our member clubs.
“We will be releasing figures for 2021-22 in the coming weeks and 2023 figures in mid-June 2024 for the extraordinary general assembly.”
As detailed in the FIA’s accounts, F1’s governing body lost a combined £50.6m (€58.9m) between 2019 and 2021. However, after Ben Sulayem’s election at the end of that year, the deficit was cut down to £6.6m (€7.7m) in 2022.
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This comes following a turbulent start to the winter break for the FIA. The organisation is now facing a potential legal tussle with Mercedes after an investigation was opened off the back of a Business F1 report alleging that team principals had complained about suspected passing of information between Susie Wolff, who works for F1, and Toto Wolff.
Susie and Toto both vehemently denied the claims, while all other nine teams released coordinated statements stating that they had not lodged any complaints and that they fully supported the former in her work for F1 Academy.
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