FIA boss insists relationship with Verstappen is ‘good’

Jul.14 (GMM) The FIA’s reigning president insists he has a “good” relationship with Max Verstappen.

Since taking over from Jean Todt at the end of 2021, Mohammed Ben Sulayem has become a highly controversial and divisive head of F1’s governing body.

He has clashed not only with members within the Paris-based federation, but also inside the Formula 1 paddock – including with the drivers themselves.

Some believe the 63-year-old Emirati’s poorest relationship is with Verstappen, who was sent to community service last winter for swearing in a press conference.

“My relationship with Max is as good as with any other driver,” Ben Sulayem insisted to the Dutch publication Formule 1.

Having assumed a lower profile in the last several months, Ben Sulayem is now re-engaging with the media as he faces a rival in the FIA presidential elections later this year – his nemesis Tim Mayer.

The current FIA boss has re-fired interest in his potential re-election by indicating that he would support a return to loud V8 engines for F1 and even a twelfth team.

Ben Sulayem now insists he is patching up relationships with top F1 drivers.

“I’ve sat with them,” he said. “And with WRC and other drivers too. They all have my phone number. They speak to me, and I speak to them.

“But if we’re going to talk about, say, the ban on swearing on FIA channels, believe me, I’ll always stick to that,” Ben Sulayem added. “I was a racing driver myself, but I never swore.

“We just have to control ourselves, and the drivers too. They’re all intelligent people, ambassadors of our sport. In fact, they are the future of our sport.”

Ben Sulayem recently agreed to dilute the harshness of the potential penalties for driver swearing, but insists he will not back down completely.

“For me personally, Muhammad Ali was the greatest sportsman in the world,” he said, “and I never heard him swear. And I never heard Lewis Hamilton swear either – not in any of his teams.

“We’ve since amended Section B of the International Sporting Code to ease the sanctions against swearing – so we did listen to the drivers. At the same time, we’re also acting in the public interest and the interest of the FIA.”

Quadruple world champion Verstappen, however, is continuing his near-silent protest against the swearing clampdown by saying very little in FIA press conferences.

Ben Sulayem insists his relationship with the 27-year-old is fine.

“It’s the same as with pretty much all the other drivers,” he said.

“Max is a great champion, a young champion too. So he’s hungry, smart, and he really wants to win. The same goes for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. And then there’s Charles Leclerc.

“They’re all fantastic drivers. And you see them mature quickly. 15 years ago, you didn’t see so many youngsters on the grid. Now I remember signing Kimi Antonelli’s super license and seeing that he was 17. When you let that sink in, it’s actually incredible.”

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