Mohammed Ben Sulayem, president of the FIA, publicly responded to the press release from the drivers' association, the GPDA.
At the beginning of November, in an Instagram post, the GPDA highlighted several points, including a request for reassessment of the recent sanctions imposed for offensive comments, after criticism from Ben Sulayem.
The drivers' association also urged the FIA president to review his way of communicating, recalling that drivers are “adults” and do not need advice on “trivial” subjects.
The statement also included a request for transparency regarding the use of funds from fines imposed on drivers and teams.
Several weeks after this press release, Mohammed Ben Sulayem finally responded to the GPDA, and this response should not please the pilots.
“It’s none of their business,” Ben Sulayem told Motorsport.com. “I'm sorry. With all due respect, I am a pilot. I respect the pilots. Let them focus on what they do best, which is running.”
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Ben Sulayem: “People should not interfere in our affairs”
Mohammed Ben Sulayem also returned to the dismissals within the FIA, in a context where Niels Wittich, former F1 race director, was dismissed.
“It’s our business,” says the president of the FIA. “We will do whatever is good for the FIA. So it’s not up to people to interfere in our affairs. What matters are the results we produce.”
“Should we tell them what we did?” poursuit I am Sulayem. “We have to tell them? When something changes in the teams, do they tell us? No, they don't. No one is obligated to do it. We have the rules, we follow our rules. We don't follow other people's rules. It’s that simple.”
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