FIA President Urges Formula 1 to Ensure Fernando Alonso's Competitive Exit
Mohammed Ben Sulayem has drawn a clear line in the sand: Formula 1 should not allow Fernando Alonso to slip quietly out of the sport in an uncompetitive car.
The FIA president, speaking at an event in Madrid, made it plain he believes a two-time world champion of Alonso’s stature deserves a very different exit.
“There is no way we can allow Fernando to leave – Alonso, a great champion – to leave just because of the circumstances,” Ben Sulayem said. “That's not the way to leave the stage. He has to be successful and then he leaves whenever he wants, not because he was forced to leave because of the performance.”
Alonso, 45, is out of contract with Aston Martin at the end of the season and has already said his decision on whether to continue in F1 will come “not soon”. Right now, the picture is bleak. Aston Martin sit 10th in the constructors’ standings after producing a car that has dropped them to the back of the midfield, and engine partner Honda is currently assessed as having the least powerful power-unit on the grid.
For a driver who has twice conquered the sport and returned to it to chase more glory, trudging around in an underpowered Aston Martin is a brutal comedown, all the more so on home soil. Ben Sulayem said he had seen the toll it is taking.
“I will be speaking to him,” he explained. “I said to him, I saw him very sad, and I said, ‘Fernando, I understand, it's not acceptable that you are coming to your own country and now after two times a world champion…’”
The FIA president then revealed he had already moved on one front to give Honda and Aston Martin more room to respond. He pointed to steps taken in May under F1’s additional development and upgrade opportunities (Aduo) system, the mechanism that allows struggling engine manufacturers to catch up if their power-units are judged to be more than 2% down on the class leader.
“We did something earlier, in May, legally for the team towards the engine to go and improve,” Ben Sulayem said. “And then I said to him: ‘I am not going to tell you what we are going to do. Please tell me what you want because you are the driver and come and tell me what do you want us to do to improve these results.’”
That suggestion – that the head of motorsport’s governing body is asking a driver what should be done to improve his team’s fortunes – inevitably raised eyebrows, not least because Ben Sulayem’s tenure has already been marked by controversy over governance and internal checks and balances at the FIA.
An FIA spokesperson quickly moved to frame his comments, stressing that the president was talking specifically about the Aduo process and his desire to see Alonso remain in the sport.
“It is a comment about the Aduo process and that he hopes FA stays in the sport,” the spokesperson said. “That is all.”
Pressed on whether Ben Sulayem’s words hinted at an overreach of his role, given the FIA’s responsibility to administer the championship independently and objectively, the spokesperson pushed back, casting his remarks as the reaction of a former racer emotionally invested in the drivers’ fortunes.
“He is passionate about the drivers, having been one himself, and I really would not read too much into this,” they added.
Passion or not, the stakes are clear. Alonso’s future hangs over the paddock, Aston Martin are marooned at the wrong end of the table, and Honda are fighting to claw back horsepower through the narrow window the regulations still allow.
If this is to be the final act of one of F1’s fiercest competitors, neither Alonso nor the man running the sport’s governing body seem willing to accept that it should end in the shadows of the midfield.
