FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem keeps landing himself in hot water in recent weeks, with various comments made by the 61-year-old not being well received by F1 officials.
The FIA president took to Twitter to hit back at F1’s refusal to allow Andretti-Cadillac to join the grid, despite Stefano Domenicali’s clear stance on the matter.
He also chose to comment on the rejected $20bn bid to take over F1 by Saudi Arabia, claiming that this was an ‘inflated value’, much to the anger of current owners Liberty Media.
Alongside these recent comments, Ben Sulayem has come under fire for a number of issues since being appointed as FIA president, such as last season’s Japanese Grand Prix, where it was unclear for some time exactly how many points had been awarded to each driver.
READ: Red Bull set to have an all-Dutch driver line-up next year
F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has now urged Mohammed Ben Sulayem to stay away from any issues that do not concern him, suggesting that his comments are not helping anybody.
“These things shouldn’t happen. For the benefit of the sport, everyone needs to do their own job,” he told Sky.
“The credibility of our brand is related to everyone doing the perfect job in the role that they have.
“It is no secret to say that the key to success is for everyone to do their own job, in the right way, to benefit the growth of the sport,” he continued.
‘Anything that is not helpful? There is no need to comment. Our interest is to make sure the sport is growing.
READ: Logan Sargeant makes shocking revelation about his F1 career
“We do our job as the commercial rights holder. The teams do their job. The same for the FIA who have had one year to develop, grow, work on a new team. They must deliver the job.”
In the wake of these controversies, including the re-emergence of sexist comments made by Mohammed Ben Sulayem over 20 years ago, the FIA president has now reportedly stepped back from F1 related issues.
With only a couple of weeks to go until the Bahrain Grand Prix kicks off the 2023 season, F1 will be hoping that their relationship with the FIA improves drastically in the next couple of weeks.