Ben Sulayem: British media go against Saudi Arabia or me

While Ben Sulayem mentioned Saudi Arabia, he was, looking at how his statement continued, probably hinting at comments against Gulf Arab countries that host a total of four Formula 1 races: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates from which the FIA president hails.

F1 has come under criticism for holding races in countries with questionable human rights records, with several drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel being vocal about the decision to race in Saudi Arabia before things settled down and life went on normally, the money being too good for Liberty Media or Formula One Management to ignore.

However the fact remains that media in the English language, and the British in particular, have a major effect within F1, and they have not been completely neutral, showing preference towards British drivers, while the likes of Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso, and even Vettel in his days have always been a subject of criticism compared to their British counterparts.

Adrian Newey admitted Verstappen has been treated unfairly by the media while Alonso never hid his dismay with media comments against him. A recent example was David Coulthard at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix questioning a penalty given to Valtteri Bottas while agreeing to the same one given to Verstappen for similar offenses.

Bottas is not British, but he was not the one fighting Lando Norris in the McLaren and previously Hamilton when at Mercedes. That was Max.

Back to Ben Sulayem, we at GrandPrix247 have insisted on giving him a chance when he became FIA president, as everyone else was criticizing him even before he started his duties in the governing body.

Needless to say, Ben Sulayem did not repay our faith, and his performance has been below par, to say the least; his U-turn on the whole Andretti F1 project is a clear example. However, he has always made a point of calling out the media for attacking him, especially the British media.

Speaking at the 2025 Dakar Rally, Ben Sulayem once again hit out at the British media for being unfair to him and Arabs in general, hinting that the British Grand Prix has no problem taking Qatari money from Qatar Airways that sponsors the British Grand Prix.

He said: "Three years of critics against me. Do I care? Was I elected to listen to the media? No. I like the good media, the positive media, and maybe I make a mistake, and you can come and criticize me in an objective way.

"Unfair. But the world is unfair. Saudi Arabia has reinvested a lot," he added when asked about unfair treatment.

“You look at some of the British media, and they go against Saudi Arabia or me," he went on. "But one thing I would say, go on and see the British Grand Prix.

"Is it the British Grand Prix? No, it is the Qatar Airways British Grand Prix. Please, you remove the budget, you remove the money," Ben Sulayem concluded.

During his tenure, the FIA has seen many high-profile employees come and go while a recent statute change has raised concern about the governance within the F1 governing body.

Ben Sulayem himself has been picking a fight with drivers for the use of foul language, which started with penalizing Verstappen for mentioning the F-word in a press conference.

F1 drivers have hit back, demanding respect from Ben Sulayem while questioning the FIA about the manner of spending the money collected from driver fines. The Emirati said it was none of their business.