Ben Sulayem investigated for alleged attempt to interfere in F1 race result

The event involved is the 2023 Saudi Arabian GP, where Fernando Alonso finished third on the road before a 10-second penalty for the team touching the car during a penalty stop demoted him to fourth.

However, later the stewards rescinded the penalty, restoring the Aston Martin driver to third in the final results.

According to the BBC, Ben Sulayem is the subject of an investigation after a whistleblower accused him of attempting to interfere with the result by attempting to get Alonso’s 10-second penalty overturned.

Ben Sulayem is alleged to have called Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamas bin Isa Al Khalifa, FIA vice-president for sport for the Middle East and North Africa region and a close ally of his, who was present at the race.

The BBC says that the matter is being investigated by the FIA’s ethics committee and that a report has been submitted by FIA compliance officer Paolo Basarri, who has been with the organisation since 2017.

At the time, there was no suggestion that there was anything untoward with the change of heart by the stewards.

In fact, the focus was on Aston Martin sporting director Andy Stevenson, who successfully made the team’s case in a right of review, and convinced the stewards to change their minds.

It was also seen as a rare example of the stewards accepting new evidence and making a decision that appeared to be logical and fair.

It also led to an FIA investigation that created clarity for the rules related to touching cars at penalty pitstops.

The FIA did not respond to a request for comment when contacted by Motorsport.com.

The saga began when Alonso was deemed to have stopped on the grid too far to the side of his painted grid box, a result of extra FIA scrutiny at the time following a 2023 F1 sporting regulation change.

Alonso subsequently had to take a five-second penalty at his pitstop. Mercedes viewed a video of the stop and alerted the FIA to the fact that the rear jack was touching the car.

The FIA looked into the matter via its remote operations centre in Geneva, and the matter went to the stewards.

The stewards were initially led to believe that an earlier meeting of the FIA sporting advisory committee had agreed that jacks could not touch the car during a penalty stop, violating a regulation that says a car “may not be worked on until the car has been stationary for the duration…