Rumors
'Jackpot for FIA: Fines handed out tripled over the last year'
According to Spanish newspaper Marca, the FIA have collected three times the amount of the 2023 fines in the current year, after each of them were added up in 2024. As a result, the federation could collect an astonishing number of euros.
Marca's sum totals €332,900, that would of course go to the FIA. That amount would be the triple the so-called fine pot in 2023. More fines have been handed out, but also the many fines with higher amounts were also handed out.
Drivers have talked multiple times about the fines and the lack of transparency over the course of the 2024 season. Not only do they feel some fines were unnecessary, but there is especially a lot of uncertainty about where the money ends up at. FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem is said to have declared at the presidential election that under his leadership, the FIA would become transparent, but there has been no sign of that to date.
What happens to F1 drivers' fines?
Reacting to these statements made by the drivers Mohammed Ben Sulayem suggested that they should focus on racing instead of questioning the motorsport federation, and had no response to the matter.
"It's none of their business. Sorry ... I am a driver. I respect the drivers. Let them go and concentrate on what they do best, which is race. This is our business. We'll do whatever is good for the FIA. So it's really none of people's business to interfere in ours. It's the results that we produce,'' the FIA president revealed ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The President therefore did not care about the criticism of the driver: "No. I will tell you something, what's happening. I think I live free of charge in their brains. It’s a good apartment there, they give me," he explained.
This article was written in collaboration with Kada Sárközi
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