F1 News: FIA Hits Back At Former President's Claims - "Financial State Was Unsatisfactory And Unsustainable"

The governing body hasn't held itself back from defending its 2021 position.

In response to former FIA president Jean Todt's statement that the organization's finances were "largely profitable" upon his departure in 2021, the governing body has asserted that the financial situation was "unsatisfactory and unsustainable."

Current FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has revealed on several occasions that there was a critical financial deficit when he took over the role in 2021 from Todt. However, after years of silence, the former president told L’Equipe, that the accounts were profitable under his leadership, except during the Covid lockdown era. He said:

“Each year, the accounts have been largely profitable, except the last two years, marked by the COVID crisis, which could have finished the federation if we had not succeeded in quickly building the conditions which allowed F1 to be the first international competition to be organized despite lockdowns.”

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However, the FIA has hit back at his claims in a statement by expressing the gravity of the situation in 2021 when Ben Sulayem took over. The spokesperson also added that the accounting figures for the period in question and the present year will be published soon. The spokesman said:

“As the FIA president outlined during the annual general assemblies week in Baku, the FIA has been transparent in revealing that soon after the new presidential team took office, the financial state that was discovered was unsatisfactory and unsustainable.

“The federation was incurring significant losses.

“The senior leadership’s mission is to sustain the FIA, and while we are not for profit, we do need to at least have balanced books and ideally create a surplus to strengthen equity for unforeseen events and to invest in research and development in the areas of safety, technology, and regulation across sport and mobility and to meet our primary purpose of supporting our member clubs.

“We will be releasing figures for 2021-22 in the coming weeks and 2023 figures in mid-June 2024 for the extraordinary general assembly.”

As per the audited accounts of the FIA, the organization reported an operating loss of €12.8 million in 2019, €22.1 million in 2020, and €24 million in 2021. Under Ben Sulayem's leadership, the FIA managed to decrease its operating loss to €7.7 million in 2022, with an anticipated loss of €3 million in 2023. The goal is to further minimize the deficit in 2024, and break even by 2025.

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