Source link : https://motorsports-news.org/2025/01/15/formula-1/fia-explains-why-it-feels-driver-criticism-on-f1-fines-is-overblown/
The FIA has countered criticism from Components 1 drivers on the way it spends the cash generated by fines.
The state of affairs round driver fines was one of many a number of matters that brought about unease amongst F1 drivers final season as they grew more and more annoyed at how FIA president Mohamed Ben Sulayem had been working issues.
Over the 2024 season a complete of round 270,000 euros – not counting suspended fines – was generated by over 50 offences, with drivers fined for infringements like pitlane rushing, impeding, driving a automotive in an unsafe situation, crossing a reside monitor and swearing, the latter being the FIA’s newest level of focus.
Mercedes’ GPDA director George Russell was one of many a number of drivers questioning the place the cash from the fines goes, clamoring for extra transparency from the governing physique.
“For us once we had been listening to from the FIA a few years in the past, once they had the presidential elections, they had been all about transparency,” Russell stated. “About the place the cash was going to be reinvested by way of grassroots racing, which we’re all in favour of. We simply need the transparency, an understanding of what was promised from the start.”
Talking solely to Motorsport.com, the FIA’s head of single-seater racing Nikolas Tombazis says all cash generated by fines helps fund the FIA’s grassroots tasks and social initiatives, which noticed investments of over 10 million euros final yr.
“The FIA shouldn’t be a profit-making organisation,” Tombazis stated. “We do not have shareholders who’re some numbers within the inventory change and hoping for share worth to go up or get extra dividends or something like that. So all the cash is spent on what is taken into account to be helpful features, whether or not it’s for security, for grassroots in motorsport, or generally different tasks that are to do with street security.
George Russell, Mercedes-AMG F1 Group, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, President, FIA
Picture by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Photographs
“I believe this query is typically barely influenced by the feelings of the second, of no matter advantageous is being mentioned and so forth. I realise that anybody who’s paying a advantageous is at all times barely aggravated about it and will really feel considerably aggrieved, however for positive there are such a lot of totally different ranges of tasks that you may by no means come to the conclusion that this cash is in some way spent for Christmas events and so forth.
“The sum of money spent in grassroots vastly exceeds the fines gathered, which I believe signifies that something that goes in there can have a optimistic affect. You’d wrestle to seek out tasks on the FIA that do not have some motorsport grassroots or social affect.
“What I can say with absolute certainty is that fines of drivers in a single sport do not subsidise one other sport or one other class or one thing like that. However when you have a look at different initiatives, whether or not it’s our campaigns, just like the one about on-line abuse and all of the grassroots we have been speaking about earlier than, or security tasks, I imagine are noble methods of spending such cash. And this cash does contribute to that.”
Tombazis defined the FIA’s grassroots tasks are instrumental in bringing on the subsequent era of officers and drivers because it makes an attempt to decrease the barrier to entry at decrease ranges like go-karting.
“There’s about 10.3 million euros spent on grassroots, for a lot of golf equipment, for a lot of nations, simply to advertise a variety of tasks of early motorsport exercise, and I believe that is essential,” he stated.
“Finally, I believe the well being of Components 1 is essentially depending on the general enchantment of motorsport. It is not simply having an thrilling grand prix, nevertheless it’s additionally having extra individuals who typically even do some comparatively low degree of grassroots degree of motorsport of their nation. I believe that is going to be in the end helpful for Components 1.
“The opposite half, in fact, is in an effort to choose drivers for the longer term, how drivers can develop into the ladder and have the chance to take action even when they’re possibly not coming from a rich household, for instance. That’s what is in the end the important thing intention.”
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Author : Motorsports
Publish date : 2025-01-15 09:40:14
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