Sulayem gets support after battle with Wolff: 'People don't understand him'

Bernie Ecclestone is sticking up for Mohammed ben Sulayem. The FIA president is under fire, but according to the former F1 boss, that has nothing to do with his goodwill.

Mohammed ben Sulayem has come under a lot of fire lately. The president of the FIA regularly speaks out, which in itself is not a problem, but his opinions are often at odds with those of F1 and the F1 teams. This problem was again revealed in the investigation into Toto Wolff and Susie Wolff.

Ecclestone backs FIA president

"He is doing things differently than they have been done before. He also does things differently than I would do. In my eyes, he is a simple man who wants what is best for the sport. His bad reputation is because people don't understand him. He is now learning that people running a team in F1 are different from what he expected," Ecclestone told Sport Bild.

With the latter, Ecclestone also seems to hint again at a battle between team bosses in F1 and Ben Sulayem. Especially the relationship between Mercedes team boss Wolff and Sulayem is said to have deteriorated considerably since the Susie investigation. Wolff revealed in a recent interview that he was far from forgetting what had happened in recent months.