FIA president Mohammed ben Sulayem has denied greed was behind the FIA’s decision to say no to doubling the number of sprint races in 2023.
Last season, Formula 1 introduced a new format dubbed sprint qualifying and trialled it at three races.
It was met with mixed reviews but by and large it was declared successful, leading to talks of increasing the number to six for this season.
That plan failed when the teams said no, but it was back on the table at last month’s F1 Commission meeting with the suggestion being to hold six sprint events in 2023.
This time, the FIA said no with Sky Sports’ Craig Slater saying he had been informed “unjustifiable financial requests” are behind the FIA’s opposition.
“The word ‘greed’ was actually used to me,” he added.
“And a couple of teams said in their view, the FIA do not incur significant extra costs by replacing a practice session with a sprint event. They are shocked the FIA have taken this position.”
Ben Sulayem has responded to that, telling the Daily Mail at no point did he “ask for more money”.
“But,” he then added, “if I had, I would have wanted to use it in the right way – to invest in the proper regulation of the sport.
“We say Formula 1 is the pinnacle and it is, so we at the FIA need the resources to govern the technical and financial side of a billion-dollar sport in a manner that respects that. We need the capability to observe those standards.
“So, specifically with regard to the sprints, I have to see whether my team on the ground can absorb the extra workload the races would entail.
“After Abu Dhabi (where Lewis Hamilton controversially lost the title to Max Verstappen) people said we should change this or that.
“So I don’t understand why we would suddenly ask the FIA team to do more. An incident happens in the future, such as one involving a Safety Car, and then what?
“We need to look into all this and make a sensible decision. Let us run our operation. We…
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