Mohammed Ben Sulayem: “British media are unfair to me, but their GP is sponsored by Qatar”. The FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem responded to criticism from the British media.

During the rest day of the 2025 Dakar Rally, the FIA President visited the bivouac where all the drivers and teams were preparing for the second week of the race, and he spoke to the media about a series of issues. One of them was particularly notable, in which he launched an attack on the British press for all the criticism he received over the past year.

Mohammed Ben Sulayem said he understands that FOM has a business to defend with Formula 1, but his duty as head of the international motorsport federation is to defend the sporting interests of his organization. For this reason, he feels he is treated “unfairly” by certain British journalists and considers himself a target for their jabs.

“FOM is a company, we understand that, we handle the sporting side and we help them, I am optimistic now, much more than before,” explained the president of FOM. “We are looking at 2022 or 2023, and we will see the results, because FOM primarily looks at the promoters, who have a knowledge different from that of FOM.”

“We need to be in contact with the promoters, and that is what I see happening now at FOM,” he continued.

“For me, after three years of criticism against me, do I care? Was I elected to listen to the media? No. I like the media, the positive ones, and maybe commenting on a mistake so you can criticize me objectively.”

When asked if he felt treated unfairly by the British media, Mohammed Ben Sulayem replied: “Unfair, yes. But the world is unfair. Look at some of the British media, which go against Saudi Arabia or against me, but one thing I would like to say is to go and look at the British Grand Prix. Is it the British GP? No, it’s Qatar Airways’ GP.”